“There’s really no other option:” Signal’s president explains why the encrypted messaging software relies on AWS

After last week Major outage of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Elon Musk took Signal with him fast for criticize Encrypted messaging app adopted by major tech companies. But Signal’s president, Meredith Whitaker, says the company had no other choice but to use AWS or another major cloud provider.

“The issue here is not that Signal ‘chose’ to run on AWS,” Whitaker said He writes in a series of posts on Bluesky. “The problem is the concentration of power in the infrastructure space means there is really no other choice: the entire group is, in practice, owned by 3-4 players.”

On the topic, Whittaker says the number of people who don’t realize Signal uses AWS is “alarming,” because it suggests they don’t realize how focused the cloud infrastructure industry is. “The question is not ‘Why does Signal use AWS?’” Whitaker wrote. “It’s about taking a look at the infrastructure requirements of any global real-time mass communications platform and asking how do we get to a place where there is no realistic alternative to AWS and other hyperscalers.”

Whittaker points out that AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google’s cloud services are the only viable options that Signal can use to provide reliable service on a global scale without spending billions of dollars to build its own services. “Operating a low-latency platform for instant communications capable of carrying millions of simultaneous voice/video calls requires a pre-built, planet-spanning network of compute, storage, and presence at the edge that requires constant maintenance, significant electricity, and constant attention and monitoring,” says Whittaker.

She adds that Signal only runs “partially” on AWS and uses encryption to ensure Signal and AWS can’t see your conversations. Signal wasn’t the only company affected by the AWS outage; It was also dropped Starbucks, Epic Games Store, Ring Doorbells, Snapchat, Alexa devices, And even smart family.

“My bright hope is that the collapse of AWS serves as a learning moment, as the dangers of concentrating the nervous system of our world in the hands of a few players become all too clear,” Whittaker writes.