Counting the Cost of AWS Outage: Shocking Per Hour Figures Revealed
A major Amazon Web Services outage has disrupted over 1,000 companies worldwide, with staggering financial losses estimated at $75 million per hour across major platforms.
Key Takeaways
- AWS outage affected 1,000+ firms and generated 8+ million user reports
- Estimated losses reach $75 million per hour across major websites
- Amazon alone accounts for nearly $73 million in hourly losses
- Root cause resolved but full recovery may take additional time
Widespread Service Disruption
The AWS outage has impacted access to delivery applications, social media platforms, banking services, and airline systems. Downdetector received over eight million user reports citing issues with websites, applications, games, and online banking.
Affected companies include Amazon, Bank of Scotland, Duolingo, Eventbrite, Flickr, Fortnite, Halifax, HMRC, Lloyds Bank, Perplexity AI, Playstation Network, Pokemon Go, Slack, Square, WhatsApp, Wordle, Xero, and Zoom.
Expert Analysis on Ecosystem Vulnerability
David Jinks M.I.L.T., Head of Consumer Research at Parcelhero, stated: “Yet again, global e-commerce businesses and services have been reminded how fragile the online ecosystem truly is, when so many companies are reliant on a handful of key service providers.”
He noted that while delivery services and e-commerce businesses weren’t directly affected, payment failures occurred due to banking complications. The incident follows a similar Crowdstrike outage last year that cost Fortune 500 companies $5.4 billion.
Airline and Supply Chain Impact
The airline system issues could affect global supply chains, as most air freight travels in passenger plane bellyholds. During the Crowdstrike outage, airports and ports experienced significant disruptions, though current airline impacts appear limited.
The outage originated in Amazon’s US-EAST-1 region in Virginia, its original and largest web services location. While the root cause has been resolved, complete recovery may take additional hours or days if it mirrors the Crowdstrike incident’s timeline.
Staggering Financial Losses Revealed
According to Tenscope analysis reported by TechRadar, major websites are losing approximately $75 million every hour during the outage. The breakdown per company shows:
- Amazon: $72,831,050 per hour
- Snapchat: $611,986 per hour
- Zoom: $532,580 per hour
- Roblox: $411,187 per hour
- Fortnite: $399,543 per hour
- Canva: $342,466 per hour
- Slack: $194,064 per hour
- Reddit: $148,402 per hour
Amazon Web Services has confirmed the root cause resolution but indicates full service restoration will require additional time.
