Liv McMahon
Technology reporter

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

We heard earlier that Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland - all owned by the Lloyds Banking Group - were among some of the services people experienced technical issues with today.

A Lloyds spokesperson told us that while its apps and online logins were working normally, it was aware some users were "having issues with certain online services".

It did not comment on whether its issues were linked to the Google Cloud outage, which Google has since said is beginning to see some recovery.

But a Lloyds spokesperson has told the BBC: "We understand the root issues have been resolved, so we expect all our services to be back to normal soon."

In a fresh update, Google says the issue has been "mitigated for most of the customers" affected.

But the issue is currently still affecting "a very small number of customers", it says.

The company adds that its engineering team is working to resolve the issue, and it will publish an analysis of the incident once it has completed an internal investigation.

What we know:

• Google says it is seeing the "recovery of services for most workloads in europe-west2", the area affected by the outage, the infrastructure for which is based in London
• But the company adds that users may "experience elevated errors and intermittent network issues"
• Services like the Forest e-bike hire company and Emma, the UK-based budgeting app, say they are now back up and running as normal
• Other services, including banks like HSBC, Lloyds and online bank Revolut, and the court service video platform CVP, reported disruption earlier
• We're expecting another Google update momentarily

What we still don't know:

• The full extent of the impact - the website Downdetector, which collates reported issues with web programmes, showed an uptick in issues on Tuesday morning. Google said earlier there were "multiple services" affected

• How long it will take individual businesses to be fully up and running again as normal. As we say above, Google says it is seeing "recovery of services for most workloads" but there may be "intermittent network issues"
• Google says it was caused by a "power event", but we don't have more details on what was behind the outage

We've received lots of messages from many of you affected by the outage. Here's a flavour of what you've been telling us.

Banks:

"I sent some money to my Revolut in order to make an online payment," James says. "I'm still waiting. It's very stressful. I cannot do any food shopping until this fiasco is sorted out." He says his money "should always be accessible regardless of these outages" and that he is "starting to lose trust".

Online bank Revolut earlier reported "service disruption", but said customers' "money and data are safe". We've also had reports of other banks being affected.

Education:

Jay says UK-based online platform Atom Learning, which offers services to help children prepare for exams, has been down today. Many schools are on half-term this week, which Jay says is a "key time for the current Year 6 kids studying for their 11+ exams to use the platform".

Hospitality:

In south Oxfordshire, Robert says the till system and printers at the pub he runs have all been down, as well as his banking app. "Feels a bit like the millennium bug has finally struck - pen and paper it is then."

Meanwhile, Lee, who works for a hospital charity, says all four of the cafe's tills "went down" just before lunchtime, meaning they had to close and they were left with stock they couldn't sell.

Google has released another update to say it is seeing the "recovery of services for most workloads in europe-west2", which is the area affected by the outage.

But it says users in this region may "experience elevated errors and intermittent network issues".

More details will be provided in another update at 15:00 BST (14:00 GMT), Google says.

Image source, Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Forest, an electric bike hire company, is now up and running as normal, after some users reported problems this morning.

A portion of its service was impacted by the Google Cloud outage.

Emma, a UK-based budgeting app, says it's "up and running again" after it was hit by this morning's Google Cloud outage.

A statement on X says customers' data and money have been "safe throughout".

Some balances may take a little while to refresh, it says, while thanking users for their patience.

You've been sending us your experiences of disruption as a result of the Google Cloud outage, which has caused issues for courts, banks and other businesses online.

Chris cannot access his credit card from Lloyds - the bank earlier told the BBC its app was functioning normally but some people were having issues "with certain online services" this morning.

Meanwhile Wyn - who did not give the name of their bank - said it was "embarrassing" having their card refused at the supermarket.

Online bank Revolut earlier reported "service disruption" and Halifax bank also said some customers were having issues with its app and website - more here.

Lisle is "stuck" in Sri Lanka, with "no access" to their money: "Not ideal as I need to pay a large hotel bill," they add.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, banks are among the services that have been disrupted by the Google Cloud outage.

We've just received a statement from HSBC, saying: "We are aware that some customers are experiencing difficulties accessing our services.

"We would like to apologise for any inconvenience and continue to monitor the situation, which is also affecting other organisations."

Services that look separate actually rely on the same underlying supplierspublished at 13:27 BST

13:27 BST

Shiona McCallum
Senior technology reporter

This is not the first time we’ve seen a cloud outage cause a ripple effect across online services.

A year ago, a failure in Amazon Web Services’ US infrastructure disrupted apps including Snapchat, Roblox and Duolingo, with consequences around the world.

AWS, Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud dominate this market - accounting for almost two-thirds of global spending on cloud infrastructure, according to Synergy Research Group.

So many services that look entirely separate to us actually depend on the same underlying suppliers. A technical problem in one location can reach far beyond it, disrupting businesses and their customers.

It also puts scrutiny on companies’ back-up arrangements whether they can keep operating when the infrastructure they depend on fails, and how quickly they can switch to working systems elsewhere.

Delivery firm DPD says connection issues affecting its website have now been resolved.

In a statement posted on its Irish X account in the last few minutes, the firm has thanked customers for their patience.

As a reminder, Google said earlier it is "seeing the recovery" of its cloud services.

The latest update from Google says that "we are seeing the recovery of services and are prioritising the recovery of existing workloads".

It also says "tentatively" that the "full recovery of existing workloads should be completed" shortly.

Joe Tidy
Cyber correspondent

It’s not the first time that issues at "Europe-west2" data centres have caused big problems.

In July 2022 there was an outage that was widespread and disruptive at the same cluster of centres.

Google put it down to a cooling failure during a heatwave that forced the company to shutdown a large number of computers to avoid a fire or heat damage.

Data centre computers are powerful and can get very hot if they are not joined up to sophisticated cooling systems like fans or water pipes to extract the heat.

Google said afterwards that it would be conducting a review into cooling systems at its data centres and globally to improve its service.

There is no suggestion that this is the cause of today’s outage, with the company instead blaming it on a "power event".

But it's another reminder that the digital services we all use are only as resilient as the physical infrastructure they run on.

Image source, Getty Images

What is Google Cloud - and what is the 'europe-west2' region?published at 12:27 BST

12:27 BST

Liv McMahon
Technology reporter

Google Cloud is one of a handful of large cloud computing providers which essentially prop up our digital lives.

Along with bigger players like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud provides infrastructure and services such as for storage, data management and developer tools, to power and maintain the services we use daily.

Their customers can access these services or tools via specific "regions" - geographical sites which contain a single data centre or a cluster of them.

In this case, the incident causing issues for a number of different companies and platforms - especially Revolut - stems from disruption Google says is affecting "multiple services" at its site Europe-west2, which is based in London.

As Google’s only UK cloud region, any issues at it can have a large knock-on effect for UK or London-based businesses which might heavily rely on Google Cloud services.

But they can affect companies across Europe or further afield which might use its services - as we saw last October when more than 1,000 sites, including UK banks, were knocked offline by an AWS outage at its largest data centre region in the US.

In an updated statement, Google points to a "power event" after problems with its web platform services this morning.

In a statement on its Cloud status platform, it says that they are still suffering "an issue with multiple services".

It adds: "Due to a power event we had suffered an outage within europe-west2-b zone. The power event is mitigated.

"Partial mitigation to infrastructure services will be observed within the next 30 minutes and the remaining services will be mitigated there after."

We can now bring you a update from Google, though little has changed since the company put out a statement earlier.

In its new statement, Google says "multiple services" are still experiencing issues and apologises to those impacted.

It also says its engineering team is continuing to investigate the problem.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service says it is aware of an issue affecting the video platform used for remote hearings (CVP).

In a statement on X, it says that "we’re working with our technology partners to restore service", although it does not directly refer to Google Cloud services.

The Criminal Bar Association said earlier that prosecution and defence barristers "can not proceed with trials and other hearings".

"Cloud Video Platform (CVP) is down across large parts of England and Wales since 10am. Many of us today, both as prosecution and defence counsel, can not proceed with trials and other hearings.

"Our work to clear backlogs is hampered."

Delivery firm DPD is among the firms experiencing issues, according to reporting site Downdetector.

In a statement on its Irish twitter account, DPD said earlier: "We are aware of current connection issues affecting our website.

"Our team is working to get this resolved as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Earlier, Lloyds bank told the BBC its app was functioning normally, but added "we understand some are having issues with certain online services this morning".

"We are aware of similar issues affecting other organisations and are monitoring the situation closely."

• Google Cloud says that "multiple services" are experiencing issues
• A number of firms appear to have problems, with reports of outages on the Downdetector platform showing upticks throughout Tuesday morning

• Online bank Revolut has been reporting "service disruption" but says that customers' "money and data are safe"
• Halifax bank also says it is "aware some customers are having issues" with its app and website, while the delivery firm DPD is also reporting website issues
• In a statement on its Cloud status platform, Google says it will provide its next update by 12:00 BST