- Revolut services were unavailable to customers across Europe, preventing app and card usage.
- The Revolut outage was linked to a failure of several Google Cloud services in its London data center.
- A separate incident caused a widespread mobile network outage for Orange customers across France.
Widespread Disruptions Impact Revolut and Google Cloud Across Europe
On Tuesday morning, customers of the fintech company Revolut across Europe reported widespread inability to access its app or make payments with their cards. Outage tracker Downdetector logged over 1,500 reports, with users in the UK, France, Romania, and Spain specifically noting issues with moving money.
Concurrently, dozens of Google Cloud services experienced failures within the company’s London data center region. A person familiar with the matter informed Reuters that Revolut’s service disruption was directly related to the Google Cloud outage. This incident underscores the critical reliance many businesses have on third-party cloud infrastructure.
Orange Mobile Network Outage Affects France
The following day, on Wednesday, Orange, France’s largest telecoms operator, suffered a significant mobile network outage. Starting around 11:20 CEST, customers nationwide were unable to make calls, send texts, or use mobile data. By early afternoon, the company had not yet identified a cause. An Orange spokesperson told Reuters that the fault was causing major problems for customers.
| Service | Incident Type | Affected Regions/Countries | Date/Time | Reported Cause |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revolut | App and Card Outage | Europe (UK, France, Romania, Spain) | Tuesday morning | Linked to Google Cloud outage |
| Google Cloud | Service Failure | London data center region | Tuesday morning | Undisclosed |
| Orange | Mobile Network Outage | France (nationwide) | Wednesday ~11:20 CEST | Undisclosed |
These incidents highlight the importance of resilient infrastructure and robust backup systems. PROSTO24 previously reported on Yandex Cloud restoring data and enabling default backups after attacks, demonstrating proactive measures to ensure stability.
These recent service disruptions illustrate the inherent vulnerabilities of digital infrastructure and their cascading effects on end-users. For fintech companies like Revolut, reliance on third-party cloud providers means their operational stability is directly tied to the stability of those providers. For everyday users, these events underscore the importance of having alternative payment methods and communication channels, especially when planning critical activities. The incidents also serve as a crucial reminder for telecom operators and cloud services about the paramount importance of investing in redundancy and providing timely, transparent communication regarding the causes and resolution of outages.
This article really makes you think about how interconnected our digital world is. It’s concerning to see how a single point of failure, like a Google Cloud data center, can ripple across an entire continent for services like Revolut. I wonder, what are some of the most advanced redundancy strategies that companies like Google Cloud or Orange employ, and how often do they actually test these failover systems? Also, what’s the typical recovery time objective (RTO) for such critical infrastructure outages, and how does it compare to actual recovery times?