Overview
- Signal experienced downtime during the October 19–20 AWS disruption that also hit services like Starbucks, Snapchat, Ring, the Epic Games Store, Alexa devices and some smart home products.
- AWS said the incident stemmed from an error in its automated DNS management system, according to its post-mortem published last week.
- Signal states it only partly relies on AWS and emphasizes that end-to-end encryption prevents both Signal and AWS from accessing message content.
- Whittaker says running reliable, real-time communications at global scale would require a pre-built, planet-spanning footprint that would cost billions and demand scarce talent.
- Analysts estimate AWS holds about one-third of the cloud market, HG Insights counts more than 4 million businesses using it, and an industry insider says its infrastructure underpins some rivals and government workloads.