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Still hooked on Cloud?

The recent wave of cloud outages has reminded many businesses of a hard truth: no platform is immune to downtime. In the last few weeks alone, we have seen large-scale service interruptions resulting from outages at AWS and Microsoft Azure, affecting businesses worldwide. As an example, the AWS outage on the 20th October 2025 impacted over 2000 companies worldwide including the likes of Snapchat, Office365, HMRC, Lloyds Bank, Halifax, & the Bank of Scotland. The impact of the outage spans far greater when you consider the end users of the services provided by these companies. According to Downdetector, more than 11 million users reported outages with 3 million of those reports coming from the US alone. For many years, ‘moving to the cloud’ was seen as the ultimate solution for scalability, security, and simplicity. As the digital landscape matures, it’s clear that total dependence on any single provider or architecture comes with its own risks.
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Resilience is no longer optional

We live in a world that never stops, and as a result, resilience is no longer optional; it’s a strategic necessity. Organisations should now be changing focus onto how they can build resilience across cloud, edge computing and on-premise systems. We’re not talking about abandoning the cloud altogether; it’s about taking a more balanced approach that enables businesses to regain control, optimise performance, and ensure business continuity when the unexpected happens.

The Power of a Balanced Approach

Balance comes from placing each workload where it performs best and building systems that can adapt to changing circumstances. Cloud lends itself to scalability and innovation, enabling rapid growth without physical constraints. Edge computing delivers speed and resilience, processing data closer to its source for real-time responsiveness. 

On-premise infrastructure provides control and compliance, protecting critical systems and sensitive information. The goal isn’t to choose one over the other, but to strategically combine them, creating an infrastructure that is flexible, resilient, and optimised for every workload. In today’s digital landscape, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. 

Relying on third-party cloud providers alone leaves your business vulnerable to experiencing outages that are not of your making and that you have no influence over. Self-hosted or hybrid strategies at least provide more control over costs and greater autonomy when disruptions occur.

The cost of Cloud Outages

Whether you are hosting customer data or mission-critical applications in the cloud, when there is an outage the financial and reputational damages can be huge.

Direct financial losses

When systems go offline, sales stop, and employees cannot work, leading to immediate financial losses. Every minute of downtime translates directly into lost revenue. According to Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is around £4300 a minute, though for large enterprises that figure can rise well above £230,000 an hour.

Operational Disruption

Beyond immediate revenue loss, cloud outages disrupt workflows within an organisation. Employees can’t access files, customers can’t log in, and automated systems grind to a halt. The resulting productivity slowdown can linger for hours or days even after the outage is resolved, especially if data synchronisation or recovery efforts are required.

Customer Trust & Brand Damage

One of the most painful and long-lasting costs of a cloud outage is reputational. Customers expect 24/7 availability, and repeated service interruptions can erode trust quickly. Public backlash on social media, negative press coverage, and user churn can all follow a major outage, particularly if communication from the company is unclear or delayed.

Contractual, Compliance and legal risks

Downtime can lead to breaches of service level agreements (SLAs), and cloud service contracts may not cover consequential losses. For organisations in regulated industries like finance or healthcare, outages can trigger compliance breaches or data availability violations, which can lead to fines or legal cases.

The hidden costs of outages

Even once systems are back online the costs associated with the outage continue. From post-incident reviews to infrastructure upgrades and resilience testing to prevent future disruptions, these indirect costs can easily exceed the initial downtime losses. Behind every outage there are frustrated customers and teams scrambling to restore service- the human cost that numbers can’t always show.

Ironically, cloud can cost more than self-hosted. We covered this in a previous article that can be found here.

Building Smarter, More Resilient Infrastructure

Put simply, cloud outages aren’t just a temporary headache, they pose a serious risk to your business. The impact goes way beyond lost revenue, affecting everything from day-to-day operations and compliance to your company’s reputation and customer trust.

If you’re looking to build a smarter, more resilient infrastructure that leverages the best of cloud, edge, and on-premise systems, CloudConnX can help. Our expertise in hybrid strategies ensures your business stays agile, secure, and ready for whatever comes next. 

Reach out to a member of the team by calling 0330 122 0550 or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .