{"id":4081031,"date":"2025-10-29T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/article\/4081031\/signal-we-have-no-choice-but-to-use-aws.html"},"modified":"2025-10-29T08:30:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:30:24","slug":"signal-we-have-no-choice-but-to-use-aws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/article\/4081031\/signal-we-have-no-choice-but-to-use-aws.html","title":{"rendered":"Signal: We have no choice but to use AWS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last week, the privacy-focused messaging service Signal was temporarily shut down when Amazon Web Services (AWS) suffered a major outage<\/a>. This led to criticism of Signal’s use of such a dominant provider as AWS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signal CEO Meredith Whittaker has now commented that Signal basically has no other choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The problem is the concentration of power in the infrastructure space, which means there is effectively no real alternative: the entire stack is effectively owned by 3-4 players,” writes Meredith Whittaker on Bluesky<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She continues: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The question isn’t ‘why is Signal using AWS?’ It’s about looking at the infrastructural requirements of any global, real-time mass communication platform and asking how it is that we have ended up in a situation where there is no realistic alternative to AWS and the other hyperscalers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ Related reading: Post outage, AWS adds automated incident reporting to its CloudWatch service<\/a> ]
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Last week, the privacy-focused messaging service Signal was temporarily shut down when Amazon Web Services (AWS) suffered a major outage. This led to criticism of Signal’s use of such a dominant provider as AWS. 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