A power outage at Google's London datacentre disrupted banking services, court hearings and NHS app access, according to The Guardian UK.
The outage struck Google's europe-west2-b zone, one of more than a dozen zones the US search giant operates across Europe to serve its clients. Multiple banking services faltered during the incident. Court hearings were postponed. Patients using the NHS app experienced temporary technical problems.
Experts quoted by The Guardian warned that the incident highlights the risks of concentrated reliance on a small number of large technology companies for critical digital infrastructure. The source does not specify the cause of the power outage, its duration or the precise number of users or services affected.
Google operates numerous datacentre zones throughout Europe. The london facility serves as a key hub for the company's European operations. The cascade of failures across different sectors and services indicates the breadth of dependence on this single infrastructure node.
The Guardian does not report Google's public statement on the outage, any compensation offered to affected customers or whether investigations into the root cause have begun.