IBM Cloud users in Europe experienced a major service disruption when the AMS3 datacenter near Amsterdam went offline for several hours due to a power outage and a reported fire. Despite multiple customer reports of outages, IBM’s status page failed to indicate any issues during the incident.
- AMS3 datacenter offline for over 4 hours amid fire and power issues
- IBM Cloud status page did not reflect the outage during the incident
- Customers waited hours for support, info only after direct account manager contact
What happened
On the morning of May 7, 2026, IBM Cloud users in Europe encountered a widespread outage as the AMS3 datacenter near Amsterdam experienced a power failure accompanied by a fire emergency. The fire prompted a full evacuation of the facility and resulted in service downtime lasting more than four hours. Numerous customers flagged IBM Cloud as unavailable through outage tracking services like Downdetector and StatusGator, with reports continuing until late into the day.
Despite the scale and duration of the outage, IBM’s official cloud status page did not report any active problems or updates during the incident. Customers attempting to escalate severity one tickets faced long delays, with many only receiving information after contacting their account managers directly. IBM has confirmed the fire at the datacenter as the root cause and is coordinating with emergency services and affected clients to mitigate the impact.
Why it matters
This incident highlights significant challenges in communication and transparency during critical outages within IBM Cloud’s European infrastructure. The failure to reflect the outage on the official status page and slow response to high-priority incidents contributed to uncertainty and frustration among customers relying on IBM Cloud for their operations.
Reliability and timely communication are essential for cloud providers supporting enterprise workloads, especially as incidents like this can affect production environments, disrupt business processes, and undermine client trust. IBM’s AMS3 datacenter serves a significant portion of its European cloud customers, meaning the impact of such outages can be widespread and potentially damaging to the vendor’s reputation.
What to watch next
Customers and industry observers should monitor IBM’s follow-up actions in addressing both the physical infrastructure issues at AMS3 and the procedural shortcomings in outage communication. It remains to be seen how IBM plans to enhance its status reporting mechanisms to provide timely, accurate information during incidents and improve customer support response times.
Given IBM’s previous history with severe outages affecting login and access, users will be watching for enhancements to cloud resilience, support tier offerings, and transparency measures. Stakeholders could also seek clarification on contingency plans and disaster recovery protocols for critical European datacenters to help mitigate similar risks in the future.