What happened to AWS?

On October 20, 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS)—the world's largest cloud computing provider—experienced a major global outage that disrupted thousands of websites, apps, and online services for several hours. The incident began around 2:40 AM ET (7:40 AM BST) and primarily affected the US-East-1 region (Northern Virginia data center)

AWS confirmed the issue was resolved by late afternoon ET, with services returning to "normal operations."

Impact

The outage rippled across industries, affecting over 1,000 companies and peaking at more than 50,000 user reports on Downdetector around 7:50 AM ET. Here's a breakdown of notable disruptions:

Category	Affected Services/Apps	Issues
Social Media & Entertainment	Snapchat, Reddit, Roblox, Fortnite (Epic Games), Duolingo	Login failures, slow loading, in-app crashes; millions of users unable to access feeds or games.
Finance & Banking	Venmo, Coinbase, Robinhood, Lloyds Bank, Halifax	Transaction delays, app downtime; users couldn't send payments or check balances.
Travel & Airlines	United Airlines, Delta Air Lines	App and website outages; booking systems disrupted, stranding some travelers.
Smart Home & Devices	Ring (doorbells/cameras), Alexa (Amazon Echo)	Devices unresponsive; users couldn't view live feeds or issue voice commands.
Productivity & Other	Canva, Wordle (NYT), HMRC (UK tax site), Northwestern University (Canvas LMS)	Design tools froze, educational platforms went offline; government services slowed.

• Broader Effects: Streaming services, crypto exchanges, and even some decentralized networks (with AWS dependencies) faced delays. Everyday users reported issues with food delivery apps, gaming, and email verification (e.g., SMS codes via providers like KOHO).

• Economic Ripple: No official cost estimates yet, but similar past outages have cost billions in lost productivity. Experts noted it as a stark reminder of digital fragility, with calls for better multi-cloud backups (e.g., using Azure or Google Cloud alongside AWS).

What Caused It?

• Root Issue: A DNS (Domain Name System) resolution failure in DynamoDB, AWS's managed NoSQL database service. This "phone book" of the internet glitch prevented proper communication between customer systems and AWS APIs, leading to elevated error rates and cascading failures.

  
  

• Compounding Factors: An internal subsystem bug disrupted network health checks, impacting over 14 core services including EC2 (virtual servers), S3 (storage), Lambda (serverless computing), and IAM (identity management). It was not a cyberattack but an infrastructure-related problem.

  
  

• Why So Severe?: US-East-1 is the default region for many global services and serves as a critical hub for many AWS services. This created a single point of failure. This marked the fifth major outage in that region over the past five years, highlighting ongoing concerns about over-reliance on centralized cloud providers.

Response and Recovery

• AWS Actions: Engineers identified the DNS issue within two hours, deployed fixes, and rerouted traffic. They posted real-time updates on their status page (health.aws.amazon.com). A detailed "post-event summary" is expected in weeks.

• User Reactions: On X (formerly Twitter), frustration mixed with humor—posts joked about "AWS ragequitting" or compared it to TV plots (e.g., a recent 9-1-1 episode). Companies like Caspio and Northwestern IT quickly restored their services post-fix.

• Lessons Learned: Cybersecurity experts like Jake Moore (ESET) emphasized redundancy: "This outage highlights the dependency on fragile infrastructures." Developers are urged to use AWS tools for failover and avoid single-region setups.

Services are now fully operational as of October 21, but the event underscores the internet's vulnerability to cloud monopolies. If you're running AWS-dependent apps, check your status page for any lingering effects.

What is DNS?

DNS, or Domain Name System, is like the internet's phonebook. It translates human-readable domain names (like google.com) into IP addresses (like 142.250.190.14) that computers use to locate each other on the network. When you type a website address into your browser, DNS servers look up the corresponding IP address and connect you to the right server. It’s a decentralized system, with a hierarchy of servers (root, top-level domain, and authoritative servers) working together to resolve queries quickly. Without DNS, you’d have to memorize numerical IP addresses to access websites.

How can I avoid this going forward?

You can setup a backup DNS server in your network configuration which means if your primary DNS service fails, your computer / server will automatically check the secondary. This will help you locally but services on the internet that don't have optional DNS configurations on their servers may still fail.

Backup DNS servers (also called secondary or failover DNS) provide redundancy in case your primary DNS resolver fails, ensuring uninterrupted internet access. Google Public DNS is a popular, reliable choice for this—it's fast, secure, and handles billions of queries daily. It doesn't log personal data and supports modern protocols like DNS-over-TLS (DoT) for privacy.

Google suggests using a primary-secondary pair (the system queries the first, then falls back to the second if needed). You could choose any 2 of the IPs listed below as primary and secondary. But, since we saw what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket you may want to mix and match.

Recommended DNS Addresses

• Google Primary: 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4

• Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1): Ultra-fast, zero-logging, malware blocking.

• OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 / 208.67.220.220): Parental controls, phishing protection (Cisco-owned).

• Quad9 (9.9.9.9 / 149.112.112.112): Security-focused, blocks malicious domains.

Tip: Always note your original ISP DNS settings before changing them, so you can revert if issues arise.

Quick Setup Guide

Setup varies by device/OS. Here's a high-level overview—check your vendor docs for exact steps.

Device/OS	Steps
Windows	1. Right-click network icon > Open Network & Internet settings > Change adapter options. 2. Right-click your connection > Properties > IPv4 > Properties. 3. Select "Use the following DNS" and enter Google's IPs. 4. OK > Close. Restart if needed.
macOS	1. System Settings > Network > Select connection > Advanced > DNS tab. 2. Add Google's IPs (+ button). 3. Apply.
Android	1. Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi > Tap network > Advanced > IP settings: Static. 2. Set DNS1: 8.8.8.8, DNS2: 8.8.4.4. 3. Save.
iOS	1. Settings > Wi-Fi > Tap (i) next to network > Configure DNS > Manual. 2. Add Google's IPs; remove defaults if desired. 3. Save.
Router (e.g., Google Nest Wifi)	Use Google Home app: Favorites > Wi-Fi > Settings > Advanced networking > Choose public DNS > Select Google.

Testing Your Setup

After changes:

1. Flush DNS cache (e.g., ipconfig /flushdns on Windows).

2. Visit dns.google or run nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8 in terminal/command prompt.

3. If issues, revert to auto-DNS or your ISP's servers.

   
   

Other Backup DNS Alternatives

Do you have more questions or suggestions? Let me know.

Sean@doitguru.com