The UK government is under pressure to explain why a significant, hours-long Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage in the US affected UK-based organizations, such as HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Lloyds Banking Group.
The outage, which AWS confirmed started just before 8 am UK time on October 20, originated in the US-East-1 datacentre region in North Virginia, causing widespread disruption to companies globally, including those in the UK.
The US-East-1 region is Amazon’s primary cloud region and its largest, often the first to receive new services. Issues with this region can impact users worldwide, highlighting concerns about overreliance on US-based tech platforms.
Calls for greater transparency in hosting arrangements have been renewed, with suggestions that critical services should be under national control. Questions are being raised about the resilience of UK hosting arrangements following the AWS outage.
AWS has pledged to provide a detailed summary of the outage’s causes and recovery efforts. The Treasury is being urged to explain why AWS has not been designated a Critical Third Party, despite powers granted to do so.
The reliance on overseas cloud providers, like AWS, by UK institutions has raised concerns about sovereignty and control. The impact of the US outage on UK organizations prompts questions about why UK-based services were affected.
The shared responsibility model of AWS places some security and compliance burdens on customers. The complexity and interconnected nature of modern cloud infrastructure can lead to vulnerabilities, as seen in the AWS outage.
The outage may lead to calls for regulatory intervention to prevent similar incidents. Understanding where services are hosted and their resilience is crucial for users of hyperscale cloud services.
Diversifying cloud providers and promoting competition in the infrastructure sector are seen as key to improving resilience and sovereignty. Governments and regulators are urged to prioritize these factors in procurement and policymaking.
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