Massive Google Cloud outage disrupts popular internet services

Key Points

• Outage on Google Cloud disrupted popular platforms such as Spotify and Discord, with tens of thousands of users reporting issues globally.
• Reports for music streamer Spotify peaked around 3 p.m. EST before some users began regaining access as Google engineers started recovery efforts.
• Google Cloud says it has identified the root cause and applied mitigations but has not provided an estimate for full resolution of the incident.
• Google Cloud is Alphabet's fastest-growing segment, generating $43.2 billion in revenue last year—a 31% increase from 2023—compared with 14% growth for the overall company.

NEW YORK (AP) — Popular online services across the globe were disrupted Thursday due to ongoing issues at Google Cloud.

Tens of thousands of users of Spotify, Discord and other platforms began noticing issues with their services early in the afternoon, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages.

Outage reports for music streamer Spotify in particular, peaked around 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time before dropping off, and some users began saying their access was restored.

Google’s Cloud status page said an incident with their systems affected clients in the U.S. and abroad. The company also posted that services are starting to recover after its engineers identified and began to mitigate the issue.

"We have identified the root cause and applied appropriate mitigations," Google Cloud said. It added that there is no estimate for when the issue would be fully resolved.

Google Cloud, which hosts a significant amount of services on the internet, has become the fastest growing part of Alphabet Inc., even though the company still makes most of its money from Google's ubiquitous search engine. Google Cloud's revenue last year totaled $43.2 billion, a 31% increase from 2023. By comparison, Alphabet's overall revenue grew by 14% last year.