Amazon Web Services outage disrupts numerous sites and apps

People struggled to access social media app Snapchat, online game Fortnite, payments app Venmo and other popular online services on Monday after an Amazon Web Services outage caused widespread disruption.

- BY QUEENIE WONG

NOAH BERGER Amazon Web Services

OVER 2,500 companies received increased reports of problems Monday, Down Detector said. Above, an Amazon Web Services conference.

DownDetector, a website that tracks online outages, said the AWS outage resulted in more than 11 million reports across all services. More than 2,500 companies received increased reporting of problems, according to the website.

The outage was another reminder of how consumers, businesses and even government organizations rely on AWS and its massive cloud to make their websites, apps and other online services work.

Here's what you need to know about the AWS outage.

What is Amazon Web Services?

Amazon Web Services provides cloud computing services to millions of customers that include companies and organizations across various sectors such as technology, entertainment, government, education and financial services.

The cloud provider offers more than 200 services, enabling businesses to store data, host websites and access computing power.

Businesses pay Amazon based on the consumption of these services so they don't have to own and maintain data centers and servers themselves.