A set of undersea fiber cables in the Red Sea were cut around September 6, 2025.

The outages affected not only consumers but also enterprise workloads hosted in Microsoft Azure. Companies running global services saw latency increase, particularly for users in the Middle East, South Asia, and parts of Africa. Multinational firms with employees or customers in those regions may experience slower applications and collaboration tools.

This is the second major disruption in the Red Sea region in 2025. It highlights the growing fragility of critical digital infrastructure located in politically tense maritime zones. Cables there carry up to 17% of the world’s internet traffic between Asia and Europe.

Microsoft and other cloud providers quickly rerouted traffic. However, rerouting often means higher latency, greater reliance on fewer remaining cables, and higher operational costs. This underlines the value of multi-cloud strategies and diversified connectivity plans for large enterprises.

With cloud outages linked to physical infrastructure, regulators may push for stronger redundancy requirements. For executives, it’s a reminder that cloud isn’t immune to geopolitical and physical risks, and resilience investments need board-level attention.

Google Cloud now offers free data transfers for certain workloads across clouds in the UK and EU.

The change aligns with the EU Data Act, which demands that cloud providers make switching between providers easier, and limits what fees can be charged for data transfers.

For organizations moving large volumes of data between clouds, eliminating egress fees can remove a nontrivial cost. Especially for data-heavy applications like analytics, real-time processing, or content delivery.

This change helps reduce the financial penalty of using multiple clouds. It gives more room to choose cloud providers based on performance, regulation, or cost—not just transfer fees.

To benefit, multicloud traffic has to be declared correctly. Misconfiguration or mis-tagging may lead to regular charges. Leaders need to ensure cloud governance, tagging, traffic routing, and monitoring are in tight shape

Google gains an edge among customers sensitive to cost, regulation, and flexibility. This could shift negotiations or cause customers to reassess their cloud architectures, especially in regulated industries in the EU/UK.

With the EU Data Act coming into force, being ahead helps avoid risks around non-compliance, penalties, or forced changes later.

Cloud Security Alliance just released its 2025 survey on cloud and AI security. The study looked at how over 1,000 IT and security leaders are handling risks as AI tools become common in business systems.

One clear theme: AI adoption is rising fast, but most companies admit their defenses are not keeping pace. More than half of respondents said they lack full visibility into how AI models are being used in their cloud environments. This blind spot makes it harder to spot misuse, data leaks, or tampering.

Data protection is still the number one concern. Many teams struggle with controlling sensitive information that flows into or out of AI systems. The report noted that training data, prompts, and model outputs are now treated as critical assets—but guardrails for handling them are uneven across industries.

The survey also found gaps in shared responsibility. Some firms expect cloud providers to handle AI risks, while others believe it is up to their internal teams. This split view shows why clear ownership and policy alignment are now urgent.

On a positive note, more organizations are starting to invest in dedicated AI security tools, third-party audits, and staff training. Still, budgets and skills remain thin compared to the size of the problem.

Atlassian is ending its Data Center line and going fully Cloud under a program it calls “Ascend.” This decision impacts Jira, Confluence, and other core products relied on by large enterprises.

Atlassian cites customer savings on Cloud, but independent estimates point to cost increases of up to 28% for larger enterprises. The difference lies in scale and add-on needs (compliance, advanced security, specialized hosting). CFOs should plan for higher long-term SaaS spend unless offset by reduced infrastructure costs.

Atlassian is investing in FedRAMP Moderate, single-tenant isolation, and plans for FedRAMP High / Impact Level 5. Regulated industries (finance, healthcare, government contractors) should evaluate whether these controls align with their requirements before committing.

Bitbucket is the only product keeping a hybrid model. All other tools will be Cloud-only. This effectively locks enterprises into Atlassian’s SaaS delivery. Boards should weigh the risk of vendor dependency versus the productivity and agility gains from Cloud features.

Atlassian is offering “FastShift” programs, automated migration tools, and custom onboarding. But large customers—especially over 10,000 users—should expect disruption and allocate resources for data mapping, app rationalization, and change management.

VMware is set to lose a large part of its business in the next three years. Gartner predicts that by 2028, 35% of VMware workloads will move elsewhere, with much of the shift driven by hyperscaler customers.

The change stems from Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware in 2023. Since then, Broadcom has shifted VMware from perpetual licenses to subscription-only, bundled products into pricier packages, and cut down the number of partners allowed to resell its tech. These moves pushed smaller firms to seek other options while favoring bigger enterprises.

A major flashpoint has been VMware’s relationship with hyperscalers like AWS. Broadcom stopped hyperscalers from reselling VMware subscriptions, leaving AWS and others frustrated. Gartner’s view is that hyperscalers will simply use this as an opening to guide customers toward their own native cloud offerings.

Migration isn’t simple. Companies describe VMware exits as slow and expensive. Partial moves can take up to a year, while full migrations stretch beyond three years. Palmer advised that gradual migration may be the practical path for most firms.

This is no longer just a technical decision—it’s a strategic one. VMware is becoming a premium product aimed at large accounts. Leaders must decide whether to double down on VMware under Broadcom’s rules or start a phased exit that positions the business closer to hyperscaler-native environments.

This is the only major FinOps event left in 2025.

October 23rd, 2025 | 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM CEST

Limited seats available