Amazon Web Services provides crucial infrastructure for the internet, with customers including Netflix, BMW Group, Booking.com and Canva - this is a breaking story

Amazon Web Services, the platform used by millions of businesses for cloud computing, is experiencing an outage in the UK.

AWS, developed by the online retailer, offers a series of services for online applications. The platform provides crucial infrastructure for the internet, meaning multiple websites could face issues.

Amazon stated that the issue started at 12.45am PDT today (8.45am BST) and was still ongoing as of 10.21am. A statement released at 10.21am reads: "Starting at 12:45 AM PDT, we are experiencing increased 5xx errors for CloudFront customers utilizing VPC Origins connectivity.

"We have confirmed that customers utilizing other origin types are not impacted by this issue. Our engineers are engaged and are actively working to mitigate impact.

"As a workaround, customers who do not require VPC Origins can change their origin type to resolve the errors. We will provide another update by 3:15 AM PDT [11.15am BST], or sooner if more information becomes available."

Errors of the 5xx kind are server-side, with 5xx representing a category of HTTP status codes. It means a website server came across an unexpected condition or couldn't complete the task asked for by a user.

The issue cannot be fixed by simply refreshing the page or clearing cache. AWS describes itself as "the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud", enabling customers to "build almost anything they can imagine".

The AWS website reads: "We offer the greatest choice of innovative cloud and AI capabilities and expertise, on the most extensive global infrastructure, with industry-leading security, reliability, and performance." Among the companies using AWS services are Netflix, BMW Group, Booking.com, Epic Games and Canva.

The issues are affecting users globally, AWS said. Many have taken to social media to express their frustration, while businesses have informed their readers of the problems.

An X post from Green Street News, an outlet based in London, read: "We are aware that Green Street News is currently experiencing an outage. This has been caused by a wider issue affecting Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud infrastructure provider used by our hosting platform. AWS are working to get things back up and running."

Trading platform Tradesea has also confirmed it is affected by the AWS outage. A post on X reads: "Hi everyone, our platform is currently experiencing an issue. We’re actively investigating the cause and working to restore service as quickly as possible.

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We’ll share another update as soon as we have more information."

A previous AWS outage in October last year affected a wide range of apps and websites, including Snapchat, Ring, Virgin Media, BT, EE, Sky, Lloyds and HMRC. Amazon's services such as Amazon Music, Amazon Prime and Alexa were also affected.

This is a Breaking News story. You’ll be more likely to see our stories when any big news breaks in future by simply by clicking this link. You can also join The Mirror’s WhatsApp Community or follow us on Google News, Flipboard, Apple News, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads - or visit The Mirror homepage.