Google resolves cloud outage affecting UK banks and websites

Google says it has resolved a cloud computing outage that disrupted online services for UK banks, businesses and the courts on Tuesday.

The disruption hit Google Cloud's UK site, knocking out or degrading services for customers including Revolut, Lloyds Bank and HSBC, as well as the HM Courts and Tribunals Service's video platform. Google said the problems stemmed from a "power event" within one of its smaller data centres.

More than 1,500 reports of problems with Revolut were logged on the outage monitoring site Downdetector. A Revolut spokesperson said some of its services had been disrupted as a result of the incident, adding that services were now fully restored and that customers' money and data were safe.

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson did not confirm the cause of the issues affecting some services at Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland.

The incident drew complaints from customers and small businesses. A Revolut customer from Glasgow said she had been unable to access her funds to pay for parking, while a Preston businessman said his company could not take website orders or book deliveries, warning of serious financial consequences for smaller firms.

The outage came exactly a year after more than 1,000 sites, including UK banks, were knocked offline by an outage at Amazon's largest cloud site. Experts said the incident showed how deeply economies rely on a handful of cloud providers.