Technology & AI

Power loss at Google Cloud's London zone disrupts UK banks and courts

Google Cloud's London region went down Tuesday, leaving online banking and court video systems offline for hours. Most services were restored by late afternoon, though some courts remained affected.

By Standard Topic. AI-generated from the reporting listed under Coverage. Published . Updated .

What happened

A power failure in one of Google Cloud's London zones on Tuesday knocked out online services for several U.K. banks, including Revolut, Lloyds and HSBC, as well as public sector websites and courts. Google runs a single UK cloud region, so there was no backup location to shift the affected services to. Google said it had largely resolved the problem later in the day, and most services had recovered by late afternoon.

Why it matters

The disruption left customers unable to use online banking and payment apps, and it halted trials and remote court hearings. Google's single UK region meant no alternative site could take over during the outage.

Timeline

  1. Oct 20, 6:47 AM ET: Google Cloud reported an outage in its London region that disrupted online services for some U.K. banks.
  2. Oct 20, 10:33 AM ET: Google said it had largely resolved the cloud outage and that most customers should be back online.
  3. Oct 20, 12:31 PM ET: Trials and court hearings were disrupted by the outage, which hit the courts' video system used for remote hearings.

Coverage

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