A recent column in The Register argues that cloud services, which are often marketed as highly resilient, can be brought down by events that have nothing to do with software or hardware failures. War damage, air traffic control disruptions, and storage shortages are cited as examples of real-world shocks that can ripple through cloud infrastructure, leaving customers without access to their data or applications.
The piece contends that many organizations treat resilience as a problem for the cloud provider to solve, rather than something they must actively plan for. This mindset, the author suggests, leads to a false sense of security. When a physical event—like a conflict or a logistics breakdown—interrupts the supply chain or the physical data center, the cloud's virtual nature offers little protection.
While the column does not offer specific solutions, it underscores the need for enterprises to consider the physical vulnerabilities behind their cloud dependencies. The author's main point is that resilience is not a checkbox but an ongoing responsibility, and that the real world will eventually test it—often when least expected.