Lessons from the AWS Outage - Warning Signs & Why Businesses Need a Backup Plan 

On Monday 20th October 2025, a major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) US-EAST-1 region knocked out hundreds of online services, affecting everything from banking apps and social media to infrastructure used by businesses. The AWS outage might have begun in the United States, but its lesson and affects applied globally. Resilience matters now more than ever, and this disruption offers a timely reminder: even the most trusted cloud services can fail. 

It is very important to know what is essential to your business operations and have a backup plan along with a business continuity plan that your team is aware of.  

The Warning Signs You Shouldn’t Ignore. 

While companies often assume “cloud = always on,” there are key signals that indicate risk is growing: 

The outbreak began when AWS’s DynamoDB endpoint in the US-EAST-1 region failed, because a Domain Name System (DNS) error prevented systems from finding the correct servers. Once the core service collapsed, apps like Snapchat, Fortnite, Venmo and many banking platforms suffered outages. 

Even after restoration, AWS noted “some services will have a backlog of messages to process” meaning downtime ripple effects lasted longer than the outage itself. Many organizations rely heavily on one cloud provider, assuming no issues will occur. This outage shows how fragile that assumption is.  

If your setup sounds familiar, one main provider, no backup plan, and limited preparation. Let this outage be your reminder to make a change. 

Why You Need a Solid Backup & Business Continuity Plan 

Earlier this year, during the CrowdStrike outage, businesses around the world faced major disruptions when a faulty update affected Windows systems globally. Flights were grounded, hospitals experienced system delays, and many organizations were forced to switch to manual, paper-based check-in and record-keeping just to keep operations running. It was a clear reminder that even with advanced technology, having a backup plan matters. Those who had well-documented business continuity procedures, even simple ones, were able to adapt faster and minimize chaos. 

Failing to prepare outages doesn’t just risk inconvenience; it can leave customers questioning your reliability, hurt your reputation and impact revenue, especially when the failure is outside your immediate control. 

Here’s what a resilient backup strategy should include: 

• Diversify dependencies: Avoid putting all critical services (database, DNS, cloud region) in one basket. 

• Plan for “what if” scenarios: What happens when your primary cloud region goes offline? How quickly can you failover or switch services? 

• Formal incident response & business continuity planning: It’s not enough to have backups; you need documented processes that your trained team knows how to execute. 

• Test recovery regularly: Outages like AWS’s show that not everything fails cleanly. You should simulate failures to make sure your plan works. 

• Track essential services and SLAs (Service Level Agreements): Know which services are truly critical for your operations and ensure you have support, backup and recovery processes in place. 

Upskill Your Team. 

Preparing for major service disruptions isn’t something you leave to chance. At CyberSkills, our Business Continuity Planning module, part of the Cyber Incident Response micro-credential helps teams move from reactive to truly resilient. 

Through this course, participants learn how to: 

• Design and implement robust incident response and business continuity plan. 

• Assess cloud dependencies and build effective failover architecture. 

• Take part in hands-on exercises that map, test, and refine recovery procedures to ensure business continuity in real-world scenarios. 

But CyberSkills offers more than just technical training; it’s about building confidence and capability. Our courses are developed with leading industry partners such as Dell, Mastercard and IBM, and academics to ensure learners gain practical, immediately applicable skills that protect both business operations and reputations. These partnerships ensure that every CyberSkills course is designed around current industry standards, real-world case studies, and the evolving needs of businesses globally. 

If yesterday’s AWS outage proved anything, it’s that the unexpected can and does happen, and the organisations that respond smoothly are the ones that planned ahead. 

Understanding the warning signs, preparing backup strategies, and investing in upskilling are no longer optional, they’re essential. 

At CyberSkills, our Cyber Incident Response micro-credential is designed to equip you and your team with the knowledge, frameworks, and practical tools needed to prepare, respond, and recover. Because when the next outage hits, being ready isn’t just an advantage, it’s a necessity. 

Read more about our micro-credential here - https://www.cyberskills.ie/courses/microcredentials/january/cyber-incident-response/ 

Explore our Cyber Skills courses here - https://www.cyberskills.ie/courses/