Google Eases London Cloud Outage, Services Set to Recover in Stages

Google says it has eased the power problem behind a London cloud outage, and affected services should return in stages. The disruption had already hit Revolut, Halifax and budgeting app Emma. Reports also named other banks and websites. Google’s engineers are still looking into the wider problem, so recovery does not yet explain what happened. ²

The outage began around 7 a.m. British Summer Time in Google Cloud’s Europe-west2 region, which serves London. Google linked it to a power event in one zone. It expected some infrastructure services to recover within 30 minutes, followed by the rest. Earlier updates described patchy network failures and more errors than usual. Google apologized to affected customers. ^2,4

Those network failures reached services people use to manage money and daily tasks. Revolut said several services were disrupted and assured customers their money and data were safe. Reports described trouble logging in and making payments. Halifax said some customers could not use its app or website, and advised them to call if needed. Emma said its outage was technical, not a security issue. Reports also named Lloyds, HSBC, DPD and Royal Mail, though Google’s role in each outage was not confirmed. ^2,5,9

Uncertainty over those links matters. Cloud services provide the computing and storage other companies rely on, so a problem at one provider can affect services far beyond its own website. But reports do not show that every named outage came from Google. Next, Google’s engineers must finish their investigation, and affected companies must confirm when their services are fully back. ^2,5