When the Internet Breaks: What the Cloudflare Outage Reveals and How STS Protects Your Business

On December 5, 2025, the internet experienced a sharp reminder of its inherent fragility. A seemingly routine software deployment inside Cloudflare’s Web Application Firewall introduced a coding error that cascaded across the company’s global network. Within minutes, an estimated 28% of Cloudflare-managed traffic was affected. Major platforms such as LinkedIn, Zoom, Canva, and countless SaaS applications went dark.

Although the outage lasted only about 25 minutes, the ripple effects were significant. Users were unable to authenticate, websites became unreachable, and workflows depending on Cloudflare’s edge services stalled. For many organizations, the incident exposed a harsh truth: even the most sophisticated infrastructure providers can fail, sometimes unexpectedly and dramatically.

Why This Outage Matters

Cloudflare sits at the heart of today’s internet. Even businesses that don’t directly subscribe to Cloudflare typically rely on services that run on its network. DNS resolution, content delivery, identity management, edge security, API routing, all these are foundational layers that modern applications depend on. When Cloudflare falters, it’s a structural shock to the digital ecosystem.

This outage highlighted several realities. The first is that the internet is far less redundant than many assume. A small number of providers carry a massive share of global traffic, making the world’s digital infrastructure surprisingly concentrated. The second is that dependency on SaaS tools hides significant risk. When one component in the chain breaks, even one you don’t control, entire workflows can collapse. The third is that operational risk is rising as organizations release updates faster than ever. And finally, traditional disaster recovery plans often fail to account for modern failure modes at the network edge or identity layer.

These are precisely the challenges that STS helps organizations overcome.

How STS Helps Businesses Navigate and Prevent Outages

At STS, we operate with the assumption that outages are inevitable. Our responsibility is to ensure our customers remain resilient, functional, and confident when disruptions occur.

One of the key ways we do this is by designing infrastructure architectures that eliminate single points of failure. Rather than relying exclusively on one DNS provider, one CDN, or one edge security network, we help organizations build layered systems that can reroute traffic and maintain service during a provider outage. Multi-region, multi-provider, and cloud-agnostic designs reduce the impact of disruptions and give businesses the stability needed in today’s digital landscape.

Beyond architectural resilience, STS conducts thorough outage readiness assessments that reveal where a client is most exposed. Many organizations don’t realize that they depend on Cloudflare indirectly through SaaS platforms, authentication services, or integrations. Our assessments map these dependencies and provide a prioritized roadmap for strengthening resilience. When an outage does occur, there are no surprises; clients understand their risks, and they know how to respond.

Incident response is another critical area where STS provides value. Outages create confusion and panic, especially when external vendors are involved. Our team offers immediate support, performing rapid analysis, coordinating with providers, guiding failover steps, and helping leadership communicate clearly with internal teams and customers. Clear communication often makes the difference between a minor inconvenience and a crisis that damages trust.

Many clients also look to STS for help modernizing their change-control processes. Because the Cloudflare outage originated from a failed update, it prompted organizations to reconsider their own deployment practices. STS helps design safer, more controlled release processes such as staged rollouts, automated testing pipelines, and structured rollback procedures that reduce the risk of self-inflicted outages.

To round out our support, STS develops comprehensive business continuity playbooks tailored to each client. These include communication strategies, fallback procedures, and role-specific instructions to ensure operations continue even when critical systems or services go offline. Companies that plan ahead experience less stress and far shorter downtime when disruptions happen.

Why Organizations Trust STS

Resilience is no longer a technical concern, it’s a foundational business requirement. Companies depend on digital platforms for customer engagement, financial operations, workforce productivity, and mission-critical processes. When an outage hits, it’s not just an IT event; it’s a business interruption.

Organizations partner with STS because we approach resilience holistically. We combine deep technical expertise with strategic thinking, ensuring our solutions support long-term business goals. We move quickly in high-pressure situations, but we also work proactively to prevent issues before they arise. Our goal is straightforward: keep your business running smoothly, no matter what happens in the broader digital ecosystem.

Conclusion: Outages Are Inevitable, Disruption Doesn’t Have to Be

The Cloudflare outage exposed how interconnected and vulnerable modern internet infrastructure can be. But it also reinforced a powerful opportunity: with thoughtful architecture, proactive planning, and trusted partners, businesses can make outages little more than temporary inconveniences.

STS is here to help organizations build that level of resilience. Whether you need an outage readiness assessment, guidance on multi-provider architecture, incident response expertise, or an updated continuity plan, our team is ready to strengthen your operational foundation.