A massive Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on Monday caused massive disruptions across the globe taking down popular apps, business websites, and essential online services. The effects were felt in Singapore’s online space, where businesses and users faced unexpected downtime, prompting new concerns over the nation’s dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure.
Global Internet Affected as AWS Servers Fail
The downtime began early Monday morning (US time) in AWS’s US-East-1 region, one of the world’s largest cloud hubs. The issue was caused by database and DNS failures that initiated widespread connectivity issues, Reuters and Business Insider said.
Apps and sites, including Snapchat, Fortnite, Alexa, and Perplexity AI were briefly unavailable, and sites that use AWS to host or gather analytics saw delays in service. Amazon disclosed that its engineers “identified and mitigated the issue,” and full recovery was achieved by most of the day.
According to The Verge, the outage affected “tens of thousands” of users around the world reflecting just how deeply integrated AWS is into the digital backbone of global internet activity.
Singapore Feels the Impact
In Singapore, thousands of users reported issues accessing online gaming and streaming services like Roblox, Clash of Clans, and Spotify on Downdetector. Local e-commerce sites and tech startups hosted on AWS also experienced delays, particularly those running data analytics or marketing automation software.
A senior developer at a local fintech startup told The Straits Times,
“Our payment gateway came to a virtual standstill for nearly an hour. We had to manually reroute traffic to avert customer frustration.”
Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) did not register any disruption to basic government services, but experts state this incident is a “wake-up call” for the private sector.
Experts Warn: Cloud Dependence Is Singapore’s Hidden Weakness
Singapore’s digitalisation plans including its Smart Nation and Digital Economy initiatives are relying squarely on global cloud giants AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, according to industry players.
While this reliance brings innovation and scalability, it also exposes businesses to systemic risk when one provider fails.
Cybersecurity consultant Marcus Tan said:
Startups and SMEs in Singapore love AWS for its flexibility, but this outage shows the danger of putting all eggs in one basket. Hybrid or multi-cloud systems are required to be the way forward now.
The AWS outage, while US-focused, demonstrated how a problem many thousands of miles away could paralyze Singapore apps and businesses in seconds. For a country encouraging AI-driven growth, cloud reliability is now a matter of national interest.
AWS Answers, Promises Closer Safeguards
AWS validated that the problem was due to DynamoDB and internal DNS failures, rather than a cyberattack or outside threat.
The company’s spokesperson said in a statement:
We have taken immediate mitigating steps and are conducting a thorough root-cause analysis to ensure greater resiliency and visibility.”
One of the largest AWS outages in 2025, this comes after a recent incident in April brought streaming services down across Asia and the United States.
Singapore Businesses Push Multi-Cloud Strategy
Following Monday’s outage, several Singapore-based companies are reportedly accelerating plans to adopt diversified cloud setups. E-commerce startups and financial institutions are looking into multi-cloud and sovereign-cloud approaches to reduce exposure to single foreign regimes.
Said tech advisor Lydia Cheng,
“The outage cost some companies thousands of dollars in ad revenue and transactions. But more than that, it cost trust. Companies will think twice about architecture resilience after this.”
The Takeaway: One Outage, Global Lessons
The October 2025 AWS outage is a stark reminder that the largest cloud provider in the world is not fail-safe. For Singapore, aiming to be the digital capital of Southeast Asia, the incident underscores critical imperatives for redundancy, resilience, and regulation in cloud infrastructure.
As global interconnectedness increases, one technical glitch can bring down segments of the internet illustrating that in the cloud-based world of today, no system is too big to fail.
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