A massive outage at US infrastructure provider Cloudflare temporarily crippled numerous prominent websites and digital services on Wednesday – including X, Truth Social, and the AI application ChatGPT. The outages once again demonstrate how dependent Europe’s digital infrastructure is on a few non-European technology providers.

By Jan Nintemann and Jochen Siegle; Photo: Cloudflare

Major Outage at Central Internet Service Provider

Since Wednesday morning, users worldwide reported outages and loading errors. The cause was technical problems at the US company Cloudflare, which plays a key role in global IT infrastructure. Many platforms use Cloudflare for DDoS protection, traffic management, and DNS services – the impact was correspondingly far-reaching.

Even ChatGPT was unable to provide answers at times, which further highlighted the disruption.

Cloudflare Confirms Incident – Systems Stabilizing

Cloudflare stated on its status page at midday that it was investigating an issue affecting “multiple customers”. In the afternoon, the company reported that systems were stabilizing and adjustments had been made. Nevertheless, the infrastructure remains under increased monitoring.

The incident once again demonstrates how vulnerable digital ecosystems are when central services are in the hands of a few global players. When a single service provider like Cloudflare experiences problems, it affects hundreds of millions of users worldwide – including in Europe.

Why the Outage is a Wake-Up Call – Especially for Europe

We need stronger digital sovereignty, more resilient architectures, and independent infrastructure.

These include:

• European cloud and security solutions
• Multi-cloud and federation strategies that reduce dependencies
• Open-source-based critical infrastructure
• Robust AI and data platforms that can be operated independently

Why TransformIT Europe is more Important than Ever

As a central platform for digital transformation, resilience, and digital sovereignty in Europe, TransformIT Europe plays a key role in precisely these debates.

We connect stakeholders from business, politics, research, and civil society – and advocate for Europe to become not just a user, but a shaping force in the digital age. Today’s disruption shows how urgent this path is.

Europe must become more independent – technologically, structurally, and strategically.
TransformIT Europe is one of the places where this future is actively shaped.

Sources & Links

• https://www.heise.de/news/Cloudflare-Ausfall-Dienste-global-gestoert-11083180.html
• https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/stoerung-cloudflare-100.html
• https://www.cloudflare.com/de-de/application-services/products/dns/
• https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/