Cloud infrastructure has become the backbone of modern business. From internal operations to customer-facing services, platforms like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud support the systems we rely on every day. But what happens when one of these providers experience a major outage?
The impact can be immediate and far-reaching. Services stall, teams scramble, and customers start asking questions. While these events are rare, they’re not unheard of—and when they do happen, they can be business-critical.
Interestingly, large-scale outages are often easier to manage than isolated ones. If the issue is widespread and publicly acknowledged, stakeholders tend to be more understanding. Customers are less likely to point fingers if you can show the problem lies with your provider.
That said, preparation makes all the difference. With the right planning, you can reduce disruption, maintain trust, and recover faster.
Before planning for outages, make sure your cloud environment is secure and well-configured. If your systems fail and it’s only affecting you, it’s likely a misconfiguration or security breach—both of which attract far less sympathy.
Key checks:
If you use a managed service provider, make sure they’re aligned with your expectations. Ask how they secure your environment across the areas mentioned above—access control, monitoring, backups, and configuration hygiene. Just as importantly, understand their incident response process:
Knowing this in advance allows you to adapt your own response plan and avoid delays or confusion when it matters most.
Not every system needs high availability, but your critical services do. These are the ones that generate revenue, support customers, or enable key operations—and they need to be protected from single points of failure. We've written a separate blog on this which helps you to identify critical value streams and their key dependencies.
There are several ways to build resilience for these critical services, including:
As the recent AWS incident has shown, no cloud service is completely infallible. A well-documented and regularly practised recovery strategy is a vital part of your resilience toolkit. Your runbook should act as a reference guide—not just for IT teams, but for anyone involved in managing the response.
Here’s what to include when building your cloud outage runbook:
Ensure your team knows who to contact and how to escalate issues quickly.
This avoids confusion and ensures accountability during an incident.
Approved in advance by legal and leadership, these save time and reduce risk during a crisis.
These should be tested through simulations to ensure they’re practical and complete.
This helps you anticipate knock-on effects and maintain continuity.
This allows you to focus recovery efforts where they matter most.
This reduces inbound queries and keeps stakeholders informed.
You can’t prevent a major cloud outage—but you can prepare for one. A solid runbook, clear communication, and thoughtful resilience planning will help you reduce impact, maintain trust, and recover faster.
What should I do first during a cloud outage?
Start by checking whether the issue is isolated or widespread. Use your cloud provider’s status page, internal diagnostics, and peer communication to assess the scale. This determines whether to escalate internally or focus on external communication.
How can I communicate effectively during a cloud failure?
Prepare messaging templates in advance for social media, customer emails, internal briefings, and account manager scripts. Use a centralised service status page to reduce inbound queries and keep stakeholders informed.
What is a cloud outage runbook?
A runbook is a documented response plan for cloud outages. It includes contact details, escalation paths, recovery procedures, communication templates, and supplier impact assessments. It should be reviewed and tested regularly.
Should I consider multi-cloud or failover setups?
Yes, especially for critical services. Multi-cloud deployments, containerisation, and automated failover can reduce downtime risk—but they require investment and technical maturity.
How do I prepare for SaaS or productivity tool outages?
Identify alternative platforms for messaging and email. Ensure offline access to key documents and restrict backup tools to your crisis team if needed. This helps maintain coordination during outages of tools like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
Can I rely on my managed service provider during a cloud outage?
You should clarify their responsibilities in advance. Ask how they secure your environment, what their incident response looks like, and how they’ll support you during a provider-level failure.