Large-scale failure of Amazon Web Services: why neural networks are not working

On October 20, 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's largest cloud provider, experienced a massive outage that paralyzed the operation of many online services around the world. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

What happened

On Monday morning, UK time (around 8:00 a.m.), AWS recorded significant disruptions to its services, especially in the US-EAST-1 region located in Northern Virginia. The problems were related to DNS name resolution for the DynamoDB API, which led to increased errors and delays in the operation of many services using this infrastructure.

According to the monitoring service Downdetector, by 9:20 a.m. UK time, more than 2,000 reports of failures in various services were recorded, including Amazon.com , Prime Video, Alexa, Robinhood, Snapchat, Perplexity, Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Asana, Fortnite, Roblox, Coinbase, Duolingo, Canva, Crunchyroll, Venmo, Ring, The New York Times, Life360, Apple TV, Verizon, Chime, McDonald's App, CollegeBoard, Wordle, PUBG Battlegrounds and many others.

AWS acknowledged the problem and said it was taking steps to fix it. By 5:27 a.m. Eastern time, the company reported signs of service recovery, but some requests were still being processed in the queue.

Causes and extent of the failure

According to AWS, the main reason for the failure was problems with DNS name resolution for the DynamoDB API in the US-EAST-1 region. This issue has led to increased errors and delays in the operation of many services using this infrastructure.

The failure affected not only private companies, but also government agencies. In the UK, for example, users reported problems accessing the HM Revenue&Customs portal, as well as Lloyds and Halifax banking applications.

According to Downdetector, there have been more than 2,000 reports of failures in various services in the United States, indicating the scale of the problem.

Implications for users and businesses

The massive AWS outage has caused significant inconvenience to users and businesses around the world. Many popular services became unavailable or worked intermittently, making it difficult to perform daily tasks and operations.

For users, this meant that they could not access their favorite apps and services, such as Snapchat, Fortnite, Canva, Duolingo, Coinbase, Ring, The New York Times, Life360, Apple TV, Verizon, Chime, McDonald's App, CollegeBoard, Wordle, PUBG Battlegrounds, and many others.

For businesses, the AWS outage led to the suspension of operations, loss of revenue, and deterioration of reputation. Companies using AWS to host their services have experienced outages in their applications and websites, affecting their ability to serve customers and fulfill orders.

Government agencies also suffered from the disruption, which led to difficulties in providing services to citizens and businesses.

Recommendations for users and businesses

It is recommended for users to keep an eye on official updates from AWS and affected services, contact customer support if they encounter access problems, and use alternative services in case of prolonged failures.

It is important for businesses to consider using multiple cloud providers to ensure fault tolerance. In addition, companies should regularly conduct fault tolerance tests of their services, update contingency plans, and train staff to deal with disruptions.