A huge outage has hit hundreds of websites and apps due to an issue with the Google Cloud service.
asserted
outage → hit → service
Several banking apps, Royal Mail and Rightmove are just some of the services affected by the outage, which began at around 7am BST this morning.
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which → affect → BST
According to Google, the London region is affected but, there are reports of disruption from around the world.
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region → accord → world
The tech giant said its engineering team is investigating the issue, which affected the London-based europe-west2 data center.
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which → say → center
In a message on its Cloud Status page, Google says: 'We are experiencing an issue with multiple services in europe-west2", and says that the issues began around 07:00 BST (23:08 PDT).
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issues → say → BST
'Our engineering team continues to investigate the issue.'
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team → continue → issue
A huge outage has hit hundreds of websites and apps due to an issue with the Google Cloud service
According to Down Detector, which tracks service outages, sites experiencing issues include Rightmove, Halifax, Lloyds Bank, Revolut, HSBC, and Royal Mail
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sites → hit → Rightmove
According to Down Detector, which tracks service outages, sites experiencing issues include Rightmove, Halifax, Lloyds Bank, Revolut, HSBC, and Royal Mail.
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sites → accord → Rightmove
However, the issues also extend to vital services such as NHS England and the courts.
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issues → extend → England
According to the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), the outage has 'hampered' barristers' efforts to clear the court backlogs.
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outage → accord → backlogs
In a post on X, the CBA wrote: 'Cloud Video Platform (CVP) is down across large parts of England and Wales since 10am.
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Platform → write → am
'Many of us today, both as prosecution and defence counsel, can not proceed with trials and other hearings.
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Many → proceed → trials
Our work to clear backlogs is hampered.'
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work → clear → backlogs
Likewise, HM Courts and Tribunals Service wrote on X: 'We're aware of an issue affecting Cloud Video Platform (CVP), used for some remote hearings.'
A large number of banking apps have also been affected, leaving users unable to send or receive payments.
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number → write → payments
By 9.00am, Down Detector showed 480 user-submitted reports of disruption affecting the Lloyds Bank app and website.
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Detector → show → app
According to the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), the outage has 'hampered' barristers' efforts to clear the court backlogs
The outage appears to have caused disruption for a wide range of websites, potentially affecting millions of users
Of those affected customers, 36 per cent said they were unable to log in, 31 per cent said they could not use online banking, while a further 25 per cent said they could not use the app.
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they → accord → app
Likewise, the budgeting app Emma took to social media to confirm that the outage was 'not a security issue'.
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outage → take → media
The company wrote: 'Emma is currently down due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7am.'
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Emma → write → am
The banking app Revolut also appeared to be partially affected, with customers worldwide unable to open the app, send money, or even make card payments.
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customers → appear → payments
On X, one frustrated commenter complained: This morning: Can't buy breakfast.
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commenter → complain → breakfast
Car is stuck in a paid carpark.
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Car → stick → carpark
'
'Nothing like being stuck in the middle of a city in Japan, unable to pay for literally anything and having to cancel my beauty appointments because my bank @Revolut is having a massive outage,' wrote another.
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another → stick → outage
While one customer said: 'I’m at a petrol station in Australia.
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I → say → Australia
Can’t pay for my fuel that I just put in my car.. so I’m just standing in the petrol station highly embarrassed and can’t get home to my kids.'
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I → pay → kids
According to Down Detector, issues began around 8.00am this morning and quickly escalated as users shared hundreds of outage reports.
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users → accord → reports
The banking app Revolut also appeared to be partially affected, with customers worldwide unable to open the app, send money, or even make card payments
By 8.02am, Revolut had over 1,458 reports of service disruption.
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Revolut → appear → disruption
Of those, 62 per cent of customers said they were having problems with the app, 22 per cent with funds transfer, and nine per cent with mobile banking.
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they → say → banking
In a post shared on X earlier today, Revolut says: 'We are currently experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services.
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We → share → services
We can confirm that all our customers’ money and data are safe.
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money → confirm → ?
We’ve been working to fix the issue since it was identified this morning and apologise to anyone affected and for any inconvenience caused.'
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it → work → inconvenience
Marijus Briedis, Chief Technology Officer at NordVPN, told the Daily Mail: 'When a cloud outage leaves people unable to make payments or access everyday services, it exposes how much we depend on infrastructure we never see.
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we → tell → infrastructure
For everyday Google users, this dependence can mean several services they rely on suddenly being unavailable at the same time.
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they → mean → time
Someone unable to pay through one banking app may find their alternative is affected too.'
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alternative → pay → app
Mr Briedis adds that the enormous scope of Google's cloud computing services means that outages might affect businesses whose customers have no idea they depend on the company at all.
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they → add → company
Cloud computing is where companies pay providers like Google and Amazon to handle their data management, storage, and networking at large data centres.
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companies → pay → centres
By 8.02am, Revolut had over 1,458 reports of service disruption.
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Revolut → have → disruption
Of those, 62 per cent of customers said they were having problems with the app, 22 per cent with funds transfer, and nine per cent with mobile banking
These services are typically far cheaper for companies than managing their own servers, and typically extremely reliable.
However, when a major provider does experience a problem, it can have cascading effects due to the number of companies affected.
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it → say → companies
This outage is the latest in a string of serious service disruptions that have affected cloud services over the last few years.
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that → affect → years
Last year, both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services saw major outages that brought 'half the internet' to a standstill.
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that → see → standstill
Together, Amazon and Microsoft's vast data centres, known as 'hyperscalers', host over 60 per cent of the world's cloud services.
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centres → know → services
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
