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AWS Outage – Amazon Web Services – How Does One Large Corporation Influence the Digital World…?
What?
In October 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS) , one of the world's largest cloud platforms, suffered a major outage. Technical issues affected numerous services and thousands of online businesses.
Why?
The primary source of the disruption was a DNS vulnerability in the US-EAST-1 region, which led to domain name resolution issues and the disruption of numerous applications and systems.
Who is it for?
Online store owners, system administrators, IT managers, SaaS operators, marketplace platforms, integrators, and all companies active in the digital world.
Background:
Amazon Web Services is the world's largest cloud services provider, used by both startups and major corporations. On October 20, 2025, a major outage occurred in AWS services in a key region of the eastern United States. The failure affected DNS services and dependent components such as Amazon DynamoDB, Lambda, ECS, and API Gateway. The effects were immediate: data access issues, login errors, payment system outages, and the unavailability of mobile applications and websites.
How does the AWS outage affect the digital world and online business?
The AWS disruptions demonstrated that even the largest and most modern cloud environments can be susceptible to infrastructure failures . Many companies that use AWS as their primary production environment experienced service unavailability. Among the affected were well-known applications such as Duolingo, Snap, and Roblox, as well as online store management systems and payment solutions used in the digital world. For online businesses, even a few hours of outages mean decreased revenue, increased cart abandonment, and customer service issues.
What are the consequences of a failure for companies operating in the digital world?
- Direct loss of revenue – especially during periods of intense promotional campaigns and seasonal purchases
- Damage to brand reputation – users may not be able to distinguish whether a failure was caused by the seller or the infrastructure
- Process automation issues – backend service failures (e.g. Lambda, S3, RDS) halt key logistics and order processing processes
- Increase in operating costs – companies must engage additional resources to monitor and manage crisis situations
- Impact on IT strategy – there is a need to redesign solutions for greater resilience.
How to protect your company against the effects of similar incidents?
- Use a multi-region and multi-AZ approach – key systems should operate independently in more than one geographic cloud region
- Consider a multi-cloud strategy – in some cases, it is worth investing in a core infrastructure based on two providers (e.g. AWS + Google Cloud)
- Monitor application dependencies – many failures result from a lack of visibility into what is truly AWS dependent on a given project
- Build resilience into your application architecture – use patterns such as circuit breakers, fallbacks, and caching critical data
- Maintain communication with users – having a communication plan (status page, emergency mailing) can reduce customer frustration.
Can the digital world function safely in the cloud?
There's no doubt that cloud computing remains the foundation of modern solutions in the digital world. However, every outage serves as a reminder that flexibility and scalability don't automatically translate into reliability . Companies that want to operate effectively online must consider digital resilience as a competitive advantage. Proper preparation, good engineering practices, and a plan B are no longer a luxury, but a necessity. The more complex the infrastructure and the greater the dependence on external services, the greater the need for informed risk management. Events like the AWS outage in October 2025 are not only a warning but also an opportunity to improve our own solutions in the digital world.
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Marcin Stadnik
e-commerce advisor
The author is a manager with extensive experience in e-commerce, sales strategy, and content marketing. He is a digital practitioner and consultant with over 15 years of experience in e-commerce projects, sales strategy, and online business development, as well as 25 years of experience in broadly defined distribution (offline and online). He specializes in creating and implementing effective solutions for online stores, supporting companies in developing their digital presence. He co-creates appropriate strategies for e-businesses, conducts audits, and oversees marketing activities—always combining analytical knowledge with market practice. He is the author and co-author of content published on the swiatcyfrowy.pl website—based on his many years of consulting, analytical, and operational experience. The materials created are intended to provide reliable, valuable knowledge that truly supports the development of online businesses. The content here is designed to address the real challenges and needs of companies operating in the e-commerce environment (the digital world).
