Fabrizio Fiorini
On November 18, 2025, an unexpected event hit the digital world, leaving millions of users frustrated: a significant outage impacted Cloudflare, one of the world’s most renowned network and security service providers. This incident raises many questions, not only regarding its causes, but also about the possibility of preventing similar situations in the future. Yesterday, many websites and online services experienced massive outages, making it difficult, if not impossible, for users to access the platforms they want. Connection errors, painfully slow loading times and, in some cases, a complete inability to log in characterized this unfortunate experience. Cloudflare officially confirmed the outage via its communications channels, and attributed the responsibility to a “network incident” that had a global impact.
Although the specific cause of this malfunction is not yet fully understood, it appears to be an excessive increase in network traffic. These surges in network traffic, especially during times of high demand, can put stress on infrastructure and systems. If not managed properly, this excess traffic can cause disruptions and malfunctions.
The crucial question that arises from this detrimental action is: could this situation have been avoided? Let’s analyze together where we can always improve. Communication: In times of crisis, clear, timely and transparent communication is critical. While Cloudflare strives to keep its users informed as events occur, a more proactive communications strategy may have helped reduce the level of frustration and confusion among users. Redundancy: Implementing redundancy and backup systems is an important step to ensure that, in the event of an incident, services remain operational. This is an important aspect for critical service providers, as it minimizes downtime and ensures continuity of service, it may be a good idea for network providers to increase this investment.
Training: Investing in ongoing staff training and creating detailed emergency procedures is critical to reducing the risk of errors. A well-prepared team can react more quickly and effectively during a crisis. The Cloudflare outage highlights the vulnerabilities that even the most reputable services can face. While it is impossible to predict every possible event, it is clear that there are steps and strategies that can be implemented to reduce risk and increase resilience. Users expect reliable and consistent service, and network providers must work tirelessly to ensure that these types of outages are less frequent and manageable.
