When the Cloud Stumbled: A Wake-Up Call for Digital Resilience

A major cloud provider went down for hours, causing disruptions across hundreds of apps and services.

What happened
Early on October 20, the outage began when a core naming service (DNS) failed. That broke many internal systems, making it impossible for apps and websites to find the right servers.
More than 100 dependent services were affected. Platforms like social media, gaming, financial apps, education tools, and even smart home devices went offline or had partial failures.

Impact overseas and in education
The disruption was felt globally: users from London to Tokyo logged failures.
Schools and universities using online learning platforms were blocked from assignments, quizzes, and resources. Students and teachers faced delays and confusion.

Response & recovery
The cloud operator worked quickly. Most services were restored by evening. Some parts still processed backlogs for hours afterward.
The company traced the fault to its internal network and DNS system in its largest data center region.

Lessons for tech leaders
Even giants can suffer basic failures.
You must plan for fallback paths, cross-region backups, and independent infrastructure points.
Prepare your teams for extended outages—from minutes to hours—and build visibility into service dependencies.

The incident shows: any system, no matter how big, can break. Stay ready with resilience at every layer.

A new €180 million (≈ $209 million) contract was launched by the European Commission to buy sovereign cloud services for six years.

Why now
Many EU governments worry that data in big global tech companies may be subject to laws outside Europe (for example, the U.S. CLOUD Act).

This tender aims to push cloud providers to meet higher “sovereignty” standards and shift more public sector workloads to providers judged trustworthy for EU data rules.

How it will work
The contract will be awarded between December 2025 and February 2026.

Multiple providers can win parts of it, as long as they are certified under the EU’s procurement system for cloud services (Cloud III DPS).

What it means for providers and users
Cloud vendors must show transparency in their supply chains, legal structure, security controls, and how open their systems are.

For public institutions, this could lower dependence on non-European cloud firms and increase control over sensitive data.

Sovereign clouds become not just a technical choice, but a policy and trust decision.

Rapid7’s VP of Data and AI, Laura Ellis, explains how the company built its next-generation cybersecurity platform by investing in AI systems and data infrastructure at the same time, not one after the other.

The problem they faced
Security analysts are drowning in alerts and data.
A recent survey showed 84% of analysts want to quit because of burnout caused by data overload.
To fix this, Rapid7 needed automation powered by AI, but that required clean, unified data first.

How they tackled it
They built a security data lake on AWS, creating shared IDs and standard schemas across all their products.
This made data easier to connect, analyze, and train models on.
Rapid7 had used machine learning for years, but generative and “agentic” AI opened the door to new forms of automation.

Software teams are asking: should you move AI workloads to so-called “neoclouds”?

Neoclouds are clouds built just for AI work. They use powerful GPUs and drop extra features you don’t need for AI. Because of that, they can often run AI jobs faster and cheaper than general clouds.

Big clouds like AWS, Azure, and Google still do many things well. But when you mix in AI tasks, their structure can feel bloated and not ideal. Neoclouds focus only on AI and cut out extra overhead.

Before diving in, teams should:

The shift won’t happen overnight. But neoclouds are becoming serious contenders for AI work.

Neoclouds could reshape how we build, scale, and run AI systems.

Many teams use more than one cloud today. Moving data between clouds can be hard.

What’s new
Azure just made it easier to move data from AWS S3 into Azure Blob Storage using Azure Storage Mover.

Now you don't need your own servers or scripts to move files. It works server-to-server.

How it works
You define your source (S3) and target (Azure Blob).
Storage Mover supports parallel transfers, so you move many files at once.
It keeps metadata (timestamps, permissions) so your data remains correct.
You can also sync changes later (incremental sync).

Security & control
All transfers are encrypted in transit.
It uses Azure identity and access controls for governance.

You monitor progress and logs inside Azure tools.

Why it matters
If you're planning to consolidate data, shift workloads, or unify analytics and AI tooling in Azure, this tool lowers friction. It lets you move large datasets faster, more safely, and with less ops work than before.

In short: with Storage Mover, cross-cloud data migration just got simpler.

THG Ingenuity and Google Cloud announced a collaboration to bring AI and data-driven innovation to THG Ingenuity’s ecommerce and fulfilment platform. The partnership aims to speed up product innovation, create new market opportunities, and improve customer experiences worldwide.

Product Innovation
THG Ingenuity will use Google Cloud’s Vertex AI and Gemini models to develop AI-powered services. This includes predictive demand planning, personalized product recommendations, intelligent storefronts, and automated fulfilment solutions. Customers can expect faster innovation, lower costs, and more engaging shopping experiences.

Shared Go-to-Market Strategy
Both companies will work together to reach customers across Europe and the US. THG Ingenuity’s solutions will be available on the Google Cloud Marketplace, helping brands adopt next-generation commerce and fulfilment tools.

Benefits for Customers
Brands using THG Ingenuity will gain access to advanced AI and data analytics, enabling smarter decisions, faster innovation cycles, and improved customer experiences. Infrastructure will be more scalable, secure, and resilient, supporting growth and global operations.

Infrastructure Modernisation
THG Ingenuity will migrate its ecommerce and fulfilment systems to Google Cloud, updating legacy applications and creating a unified, scalable foundation for future growth, acquisitions, and market expansion.

AI-Enhanced Creative Production
THG Studios will leverage Google’s AI tools to create marketing assets, including AI-generated images and videos. AI will also help analyze consumer behavior and market trends to optimize creative content and audience targeting.

The collaboration positions THG Ingenuity and Google Cloud to set new standards for digital commerce, combining technology leadership with global fulfilment expertise to help brands compete and grow on a worldwide scale.