A power-related incident at a Google Cloud data centre near London disrupted online banking and other digital services across the United Kingdom on October 20, affecting customers of major lenders and businesses. The outage began at 06:08 GMT and caused network failures in Google Cloud’s Europe-west2 region. Banks including Revolut, Lloyds and HSBC reported service issues, while other services, including Royal Mail and property website Rightmove, were also affected. Google later said the disruption had been mitigated for most customers.

Banking Services Face Widespread Disruption

Customers experienced difficulties accessing banking apps and online services during the outage. Revolut users reported problems with ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and card top-ups, while Lloyds and HSBC confirmed that some customers were unable to access services normally.

Halifax and other financial services were also reported to have experienced disruption. The incident highlighted how problems at a single cloud infrastructure provider can affect multiple businesses that depend on its systems to operate their digital platforms.

Revolut apologised for the inconvenience and said customers’ money and data remained safe. Lloyds subsequently reported that its app was available again, although some services could take time to return to normal.

Google Attributes the Incident to a Power Event

Google Cloud said the outage was caused by a “power event” in its Europe-west2 region, which is based in London. The incident led to elevated error rates and intermittent network failures across multiple cloud services.

The company’s engineering teams worked to restore affected infrastructure. By around 12:10 GMT, Google reported that services were recovering for most workloads, approximately six hours after the disruption began. A small number of customers continued to experience problems as recovery progressed.

Google apologised to affected users and indicated that it would provide further information about the incident. The precise technical sequence behind the outage was not immediately detailed.

Disruption Extends Beyond Banks

The effects reached beyond financial services. Users reported problems involving Royal Mail, delivery company DPD and property platform Rightmove. The UK’s court system was also affected, with disruptions reported to its cloud-based video platform used for remote hearings.

The incident demonstrated how cloud infrastructure supports a wide range of essential digital services, from payments and banking to deliveries and public-sector operations. When a major provider experiences a failure, organisations using the same regional infrastructure can face simultaneous disruptions.

Cloud Reliability Comes Under Scrutiny

The outage has renewed questions about the concentration of critical digital services among a small number of large cloud providers. While cloud computing allows businesses to scale their operations and reduce the need to maintain their own infrastructure, dependence on shared systems can create risks when outages occur.

For banks and other essential service providers, the incident highlights the importance of contingency planning, backup systems and clear communication with customers during technical failures.

UK regulators have increased scrutiny of critical technology providers because disruptions to their services can affect financial institutions and wider economic activity. The focus now will be on understanding the cause of the outage, confirming the resilience of recovery arrangements and reducing the risk of similar incidents in the future.

Read more news:-