Ryan Gracey comments in the Guardian on Amazon Web Services outage
Thursday 23rd October 2025
Technology partner, Ryan Gracey, has been quoted by The Guardian on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage.
AWS is the world’s largest provider of internet support services, enabling around a third of apps and websites on the internet to work.
The outage was due to a Domain Name System (DNS) error, caused by a technical update at one of AWS’s main data centres which prevented users from being able to connect to websites and apps.
This impacted more than 1,000 apps and websites worldwide and, according to platform outage monitor Downdetector, user problems hit more than 11 million during the outage on Monday.
Commenting on the outage, Ryan said: “AWS customers typically operate under standardised service level agreements, which define uptime commitments and remedies for service failures like today’s outage.
“While AWS offers service credits for downtime, these are often nominal and do not compensate for losses such as reputational harm or lost revenue. Ultimately, customers will be left with limited recourse.
“The outage reinforces the need for robust contractual negotiation, including tailored SLAs and liability provisions, alongside comprehensive business continuity planning.
“Organisations must therefore adopt a proactive stance, balancing operational reliance on hyperscale providers with legal safeguards to withstand systemic disruptions.”
You can read Ryan’s comments on The Guardian here.
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