Google Cloud Outage (20 Oct 2026): What Happened and How to Protect Your Website

On 20 October 2026, Google Cloud reported elevated errors and intermittent network failures across multiple services in its London region, europe-west2. The incident began at 23:08 PDT on 19 October, which is 08:08 BST on 20 October. UK news outlets reported problems at banks and delivery services, including Lloyds, HSBC, Revolut and DPD. This guide covers what is confirmed so far, why one cloud region can affect so many websites, and what you can do so your own site keeps running during the next one.

Last updated 20 October 2026, using the Google Cloud status entry posted at 02:24 PDT (10:24 BST). Always check the live Google Cloud Service Health incident page for newer updates. We will refresh this post as Google publishes more detail.

In this guide

• Key takeaways
• What happened
• What Google has and has not said
• Which Google Cloud services were affected
• Why one cloud region can take down so many websites
• What this means for your website
• Questions to ask your hosting provider
• Where VeerHost fits
• Frequently asked questions
• Sources

Key takeaways

• Google Cloud confirmed multiple services were failing in europe-west2 (London), starting 23:08 PDT on 19 October 2026.
• Google has not published a cause. It said it was investigating and, at first, that there was no workaround.
• Media reports linked the incident to problems at several UK services. It is not confirmed that every reported problem shares the same cause.
• The one workaround Google later listed is to move affected workloads to another zone or region, if that is possible.
• You can reduce your own risk with off-site backups, a CDN, monitoring, and a plan for moving fast. None of these are hard to set up.

What happened

Google Cloud’s status page lists the incident as “Multiple services are experiencing issues in the europe-west2 region.” The affected location is London. Google describes the symptoms as elevated errors and intermittent network failures. By the morning of 20 October, BBC reported more than 1,500 Downdetector reports for Revolut shortly after 08:00 BST, and The Independent listed Lloyds Bank, HSBC, Screwfix and DPD among the services showing problems.

Times are converted from the status page, which uses US/Pacific time. The Revolut row uses the BBC’s reported time.

What Google has and has not said

Google’s updates say its engineers are investigating and that it apologises to everyone affected. The status page does not state a cause. Its note that Looker Studio is not impacted shows the problem is limited to specific services, not all of Google Cloud.

Several companies also gave their own statements. Revolut told the BBC it was experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services and that customer money and data were safe. A Lloyds spokesperson said its app was working normally but that some people were having trouble with certain online services. Treat these as company statements, not proof of cause. The Independent noted it is unclear whether all the problems are related.

Which Google Cloud services were affected

Google listed dozens of products on the incident. They include the building blocks many apps rely on:

• Compute: Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, App Engine
• Storage and databases: Cloud Storage, Persistent Disk, Cloud SQL, Cloud Spanner, Firestore, Bigtable, Memorystore
• Networking: Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud NAT, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Private Service Connect
• Data and messaging: BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Dataflow, Dataproc

When compute, storage and networking in one region have trouble at the same time, anything that depends on them can fail, even if the company’s own code is fine.

Why one cloud region can take down so many websites

A cloud region is a physical location, such as London, that contains several zones, which are separate data centre groups. Google Cloud’s documentation on regions and zones explains how they work. A business that runs everything in one region depends on that region staying healthy. If the problem spreads across zones, as it appears to have done here, running in two zones does not help much.

Dependencies make it worse. A bank app may need its own servers, a payments provider, a login service and a database, and any one of them can sit in the affected region. The result is that a single regional fault can look like many unrelated companies going down at once. We saw a similar pattern in our post on the Cloudflare outage and what website owners should know, and in the Facebook outage in March 2026, though the causes were different.

What this means for your website

Most small business websites do not run on Google Cloud’s London region directly. But the same weak points apply to any host, so use this as a checklist.

1. Know where your site actually runs. Find out your host’s data centre location and which cloud or network provider sits underneath it. Many people never check.
2. Keep backups outside your host. A backup stored on the same server or in the same region fails with it. Keep a recent copy somewhere else. Our VPS security guide covers backup basics for servers.
3. Put a CDN in front of your site. A CDN can keep serving cached pages while your origin is slow or unreachable. Read what a CDN does and when you need one in our CDN guide.
4. Monitor uptime from outside. Use an external monitor so you hear about a problem before customers do, and have a simple status message ready to post.
5. Lower your DNS TTL before you need it. A short TTL lets you point your domain to a new server quickly. You can check current records with our DNS lookup tool.
6. Have a move plan. Google’s own workaround is to migrate to another zone or region. For a normal website, that means knowing how to restore a backup elsewhere. Our website migration checklist walks through the steps.
7. Match the hosting type to your risk. Shared hosting is cheapest, but a VPS gives more control over backups and failover. Compare them in shared hosting vs VPS and managed vs unmanaged hosting.

For businesses that cannot afford any downtime, Google itself recommends planning ahead. Its disaster recovery planning guide explains how to design for failure across locations.

Questions to ask your hosting provider

• Where are my servers located, and which network and cloud providers sit underneath?
• Do you offer backups stored in a different location from my server?
• What happens to my site if your data centre or region has an outage?
• How do you communicate during incidents, and where is your public status page?
• How fast can I restore or move my site if I need to?
• What uptime does the plan promise, and what do I get if it is missed?

Where VeerHost fits

Any provider can have a bad day, so judge hosts by how they prepare and how they communicate, not by a promise of perfection. VeerHost plans include a 99.99% uptime guarantee, free migration, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can see plan details on our pricing page or compare options in our complete web hosting guide. If you need full control over backups and failover, look at our VPS hosting.

Frequently asked questions

What caused the Google Cloud outage on 20 October 2026?

Google has not published a cause. Its status page says multiple services in europe-west2 (London) were experiencing elevated errors and intermittent network failures, starting at 23:08 PDT on 19 October 2026. Check the live status page for updates.

Which websites were affected by the Google Cloud outage?

News outlets reported problems at Lloyds Bank, HSBC, Revolut, Screwfix and DPD, based on Downdetector data. Some companies said their own services were working normally. It is not confirmed that every reported problem was caused by Google Cloud.

What is europe-west2?

europe-west2 is the name of Google Cloud’s London region. A region is a physical location that contains several zones, which are separate groups of data centres.

Does a CDN protect my website during a cloud outage?

A CDN can keep serving cached pages while your origin server is slow or unreachable, so it helps with static content. It cannot serve things that need your servers, such as logins or checkouts, if your origin is down.

How can I check if my website host has an outage?

Open your host’s status page, test your site from an outside network, and use an external uptime monitor. Also check Downdetector for reports that match your provider.

Should I move my website to another region after an outage?

Not always. First check your host’s explanation and how often it has failed. If downtime would cost you a lot, keep an off-site backup and a plan to restore elsewhere, or choose a host with options such as a VPS in a second location.

Sources

• Google Cloud Service Health incident page (Google Cloud, incident affecting europe-west2)
• BBC: Revolut outage hits “multiple services” as thousands of users report app issues
• The Independent: Internet down: Google Cloud outage leaves websites including Lloyds Bank, Rightmove and DPD not working
• Google Cloud’s documentation on regions and zones
• disaster recovery planning guide