Major AWS outage takes down web services like Snapchat and Ring

Websites and services across the United States and around the world were recovering early Monday after a problem at Amazon Web Services.

Websites and services across the United States and around the world were struggling to recover Monday after a problem at Amazon Web Services (AWS) has left leading games, publishers, streaming platforms and other apps unusable to millions.

The cloud hosting service that underpins much of the web and everyday online tools, went offline because of a problem with one its core database products, the company said.

Problems have persisted through Monday morning, according to the company.

The outage has affected users of sites ranging from Snapchat to the McDonald's app and Amazon's Ring doorbell cameras to gaming platforms Roblox and Fortnite. It underlines the fragility of companies — including financial services — that use cloud-based servers to host their data, and how suddenly businesses across the globe can be affected by an unplanned outage.

AWS first reported a problem at 3:11 a.m. ET and said it was dealing with an "operational issue" affecting 14 different services in its center in northern Virginia, at its U.S.-East-1 Region center.