Google Cloud outage hits banks and courts.
Google Cloud says a power event hit its UK data centre site on Tuesday, as Revolut, Lloyds Banking Group, DPD and remote court hearings reported problems. Google has apologised and says it is investigating.1
Google Cloud outage hits banks and courts
Google Cloud says a "power event" is behind an outage that hit online services across the UK on Tuesday, including banks and the courts.1 The company reported an "issue with multiple services" at its UK data centre complex, known as europe-west2.1 It apologised "to all who are affected by the disruption" and gave no clear timeline for a fix.1
The fault first showed on Google's service health dashboard on Monday evening, UK time.1 In the early hours of Tuesday it was updated to say the region had "elevated errors and intermittent network failures" across some services.1 Google also confirmed there was no workaround for now.2
Revolut was hit hardest. Downdetector logged more than 1,500 reports of problems with its services shortly after 08:00, and customers could not open the app or make payments.12 A Revolut spokesperson told the BBC the cause was a third-party issue and that all customers' money and data were safe.1
Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, all owned by Lloyds Banking Group, also reported problems.1 Lloyds said its app was working normally but that it understood some people were having trouble with certain online services.1 HSBC, Screwfix and DPD were also named by the outage tracker.2 HM Courts and Tribunals Service said the video platform used for remote hearings was affected.1
Not every problem has been tied to Google. Few of the firms involved have said their trouble came from the Google Cloud incident, and the link to the banks has not been officially confirmed.1 The Independent reports that it is unclear whether all of the issues are related.2
The Independent notes that similar incidents have hit Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services in recent years.3 It puts Amazon Web Services at about 30 per cent of the global cloud market, Microsoft Azure at about 20 per cent and Google Cloud at about 11 per cent.3
Who holds your systems up
Most firms never chose Google Cloud. They bought a banking app, a courier service or a booking tool, and that supplier chose it. The outage is a reminder that your own continuity plan has to cover your suppliers' suppliers.
A short list helps. Which of your services stop if one cloud region fails? Who tells you, and how fast? What do staff do by hand in the meantime? Any agent or automation that runs on a single supplier shares that risk, and it needs a human fallback written down before the day it is needed.
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Internet down: Google Cloud outage leaves websites including Lloyds Bank, Rightmove and DPD
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Much of the internet has broken: Google Cloud outage takes down Revolut and others
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