The consequences ranged from serious, like not being able to access online banking or government services, to more innocuous, like losing progress on apps like Duolingo.
The incident reopened the issue of the dependence of countries, including the United Kingdom, on a small number of American technology companies. Experts warn that a failure in the US state of Virginia could paralyze British firms and services such as Lloyds Bank or HMRC, which shows a deep dependence on American infrastructure.
Amazon and Microsoft’s Azure hold between 30 and 40 percent of the cloud computing market in the UK and Europe, but the real influence goes beyond these figures because many services, although not directly hosted by them, depend on their technologies. “It’s tempting to use the services of tech giants, but to believe they’re too big to fail is a mistake. The current failure makes that clear,” says analyst Brent Ellis.
Although such giants bring lower costs and high security, experts emphasize the need for diversification and greater resilience of IT systems. Open Cloud Coalition adviser Nicky Stewart says it is necessary to create a more open and competitive cloud market, while the British regulator CMA recommends the status of “strategic market players” for Amazon and Microsoft to ensure competition.
The British government has announced measures to diversify the cloud ecosystem, including greater involvement of domestic and European service providers, with the aim of protecting critical digital infrastructure and strengthening national IT resilience.
(Vijesti.ba)
