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What happened, and how best to keep your website online
On 20 October 2025, one of the world’s biggest cloud networks, Amazon Web Services (AWS), suffered a major outage that affected websites, apps, and online services worldwide. For many businesses in Glasgow, it was a shock to learn that a data centre problem thousands of miles away could still take down their website or online systems.
What Actually Happened
In simple terms, AWS temporarily lost its map. The problem began inside one of Amazon’s largest data centres in the United States, where a fault in its Domain Name System (DNS) caused websites and apps to stop knowing where to find their servers. It was like searching for a contact on your phone after deleting their number. The name is still there, but the connection is lost.
Because so many online services, hosting companies, and platforms rely on AWS for their cloud infrastructure, the problem spread quickly. Websites, booking systems, streaming services, and even banking apps around the world began to fail, including some government portals even here within the UK. Businesses that did not realise they were connected to AWS suddenly found themselves offline too.
It took several hours for Amazon’s engineers to restore the systems, but by that point the damage was done. Millions of users were affected, sales were lost, and countless brands faced a dent in customer confidence.
Why It Affected So Many Businesses
The reason the outage reached so far is because so much of the internet runs on shared cloud networks. Even if your website is hosted in the UK, it might still depend on systems managed by AWS or similar providers. When those systems go down, everything that relies on them goes down as well.
For businesses, that meant customers could not make purchases, contact forms stopped working, booking systems froze, and software wasn’t useable. In an age where first impressions are made online, and people expect it right away always, every minute offline can look unprofessional and unreliable to visitors.
The Importance of Professional Hosting
This outage also showed how vital it is to have professional hosting in place for your website. Reliable hosting gives your site stronger security, regular monitoring, and better protection from unexpected downtime. High-quality hosts use multiple data centres and backup systems, which means that even if one area experiences issues, your site has a chance to be switched switched over, or restored quickly elsewhere.
Of course, no hosting provider can guarantee 100 percent uptime forever. Even the largest and most advanced systems can have temporary failures, as we have all just witnessed today. The key difference is how prepared you are. When your hosting includes solid backup processes, updated software, and active monitoring, your business stays online most of the time, and recovery is fast when problems occur.
At Web Designers Glasgow, we provide hosting designed for performance and reliability, not the cheapest possible price – but there is a reason for that. Our servers are regularly maintained, security-hardened, and backed up off-site to make sure your website stays protected.
The Importance of Backups and Maintenance
This event also highlighted another major issue, poor website maintenance. Many businesses treat their website as finished once it goes live, but without regular updates, backups, and monitoring, it becomes vulnerable and its security is never as strong as it should be. The problem usually appears only after the horse has bolted, because too many people see maintenance as a cost rather than an investment. Taking out an ongoing website maintenance plan keeps everything updated and can help prevent those costly surprises later.
A proper website maintenance and backup plan gives your business a safety net. It ensures your site has:
• Regular security updates that close any vulnerabilities before hackers can exploit them.
• Full off-site backups so if your host or cloud provider has an issue, your website can be restored quickly.
• Monitoring and uptime checks that alert us instantly if anything goes offline so it can be fixed before customers notice.
• Software updates that keep your CMS, plugins, and scripts current for better speed and stability.
These are not luxuries, they are essential safeguards. It is no different from servicing your car. If you ignore maintenance, it will break down, and when it does, the cost is always higher as the damage is done.
How AWS Fixed It and What Comes Next
After identifying the fault, AWS engineers rerouted traffic and replaced damaged network settings, restoring access to websites and services over several hours. They later confirmed that additional protections and failover systems would be added to prevent a repeat incident.
For web designers and business owners, the lesson remains the same. Global networks can fail, and it is your responsibility to make sure your website can handle that reality to best recovery when it comes.
Why It Matters to Your Business
Your website is more than just your digital advert/shop window. It is your brand’s reputation, your communication channel, and often your main source of income. Downtime not only costs sales but also weakens trust.
That is why at Web Designers Glasgow, every site we build is designed for resilience. We provide secure hosting, professional maintenance, and regular backups to keep our clients’ websites running smoothly. Even when the unexpected happens, your website and your customers stay protected to get you back up and running again in the shortest time possible.
Is Your Website Protected As Much As It Can Be?
The AWS outage reminded the world that no system is too big to fail. For Glasgow businesses, it is a wake-up call to take website protection overall seriously. Keeping your website hosted professionally, backed up, secure, and up to date is not just smart, it is vital to every business in 2025. When the cloud goes dark again, make sure your business has every change of staying and being visible as soon as possible.
Glasgow’s Approved and Trusted Web Design, Development & Marketing Partner
Call us on 0141 432 5001 or click here to send us a message and the team will be able to assist you.