The British property portal Rightmove as well as several leading banking institutions in the United Kingdom faced significant service disruptions. The cause of the technical faults was a power supply failure at Google's Europe-West2 data centre in London. The incident paralysed central digital services across multiple sectors.
At Rightmove, the disruption particularly affected areas requiring prior user login. Customers and registered users were temporarily unable to access personalised functions or protected profile areas on the portal. For the British property industry, in which Rightmove operates as the market-leading platform for residential and commercial properties, the outage caused a noticeable hindrance to day-to-day business.
Affected institutions in the banking sector
The consequences of the server issue were by no means limited to the property portal. At the same time, major British financial institutions reported substantial impairments to their banking operations. The affected institutions included Lloyds and Halifax as well as the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
In addition, major bank HSBC and financial technology company Revolut faced disruptions to their operational processes. Account holders and users of digital banking applications experienced difficulties accessing regular online services or executing transactions without interruption.
- —Rightmove: Disruptions to secure account services and login procedures
- —Lloyds and Halifax: Technical failures in banking operations
- —RBS and HSBC: Restrictions in regular banking operations
- —Revolut: Impairments to payment transactions and app access
Vulnerability of digital infrastructure
The incident in Google Cloud's London Europe-West2 region highlights the heavy dependence of modern property platforms and financial services providers on external IT infrastructure. As soon as central cloud hubs fail, interfaces of portals and credit institutions come under simultaneous pressure, resulting in far-reaching delays for commercial operators and end customers.
