A Google Cloud outage disrupted several financial firms and public sector websites in the UK yesterday, according to Reuters. Alphabet’s Google said on Tuesday, October 20, that its cloud services in the UK were back up after an outage that lasted several hours.

The incident also put a wider concern in focus. UK and EU regulators have been watching the financial sector’s growing dependence on a small number of external technology providers. This is especially true for cloud firms that support critical banking services.

Google Confirms Full Restoration

Google said its engineering teams restored full service availability. The disruption was caused by a “power event” in its europe-west2 cloud region.

This region is a London-based network of multiple data centers and availability zones. It serves customers across Europe.

Revolut Reports Payment Issues

British digital bank Revolut said the outage disrupted multiple services. Its status page showed card payments and ATM withdrawals as affected. The firm added that its customers’ money and data remained safe.

Cloud Reliance Under Regulatory Watch

The timing drew attention because of a recent regulatory move. In July, the UK brought Google Cloud, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Oracle under direct regulatory oversight. They were classed as critical third-party suppliers to the financial sector. Regulators cited the risk that an outage at a major provider could disrupt multiple firms at once.

The EU has taken a similar step. Last year, Google Cloud was among 19 technology companies designated as critical third-party computing providers on which the bloc’s finance industry depends.

A spokesperson for the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority said the regulator was aware of an incident affecting services provided by Google. The spokesperson added that it was engaging with Google and affected firms to understand the impact.

Disruptions Spread Across Sectors

Earlier on Tuesday, Downdetector showed reports of issues in the UK. The affected services included Lloyds Bank, HSBC, property website Rightmove, and parcel delivery service DPD. Reports also named the National Health Service England and Royal Mail.

Downdetector tracks outages by collecting status reports from multiple sources, including users. Actual user impact may vary.

Lloyds said it expected its services to return to normal soon, as the root issues had been resolved. HSBC said it was aware that some customers were having difficulties accessing its services.

Royal Mail said it was aware of the issues and that letter and parcel deliveries were not affected. Rightmove, DPD and NHS England did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

ING Germany Sees No Link

ING Germany also flagged issues with its website and app. However, the bank said there was no indication the disruption was due to an external cause. It also saw no connection to third-party service providers.

Was the UAE Affected?

No reports of disruption in the UAE linked to this incident have emerged so far. The outage was tied to Google’s London-based europe-west2 region, which serves customers across Europe.

Even so, the incident is relevant for the UAE and wider Middle East. Banks, fintechs, government entities and businesses in the region also depend on cloud infrastructure for payments, apps and public services.

What the Outage Brought With It

Services in the UK have now recovered. Even so, the Google Cloud outage has renewed attention on cloud dependence in finance. For UAE organizations, it is a timely prompt to review how they manage concentrated technology supply.

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