In late 2025, two of the internet’s biggest infrastructure providers, Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services (AWS), faced major outages that disrupted millions of websites and apps worldwide. Popular platforms like X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Slack, Fortnite, and Upwork were suddenly unreachable for many users. These events exposed a crucial weakness: much of the internet relies on just a few centralized cloud providers, creating a fragile system vulnerable to large-scale failures.

Amid this chaos, Lync’s platform stayed fully operational. Its users experienced no downtime or interruptions. How? The answer lies in decentralization.

This blog explains what happened during the outages, why relying on centralized services can cause big problems, how Lync’s decentralized infrastructure works, and why decentralization is essential for a more reliable internet.

What Happened During the Cloudflare and AWS Outages?

The Cloudflare Outage

On November 18, 2025, Cloudflare, which routes and protects traffic for millions of websites globally, suffered a major failure. Handling over 81 million web requests per second, Cloudflare acts as a critical gateway for many online services.

When its system became unstable due to a “spike in unusual traffic,” websites like X, ChatGPT, Canva, Upwork, and others became inaccessible. Even Downdetector, a popular outage reporting site, briefly went down. This caused millions worldwide to lose access to essential digital tools.

The AWS Outage

Less than a month earlier, on October 20, 2025, AWS experienced a significant outage in its US-EAST-1 region. AWS supports a huge portion of the internet, including Amazon.com, Prime Video, Slack, Zoom, and Fortnite.

The problem started with a failure in AWS’s DNS service, which spread to other critical components. Though AWS fixed the issues within hours, many users faced service disruptions during the outage.

Why Did These Outages Happen? The Risk of Centralization

Both Cloudflare and AWS are centralized companies operating massive data centers that power much of the internet. While centralization offers convenience, scalability and speed, it also creates a “single point of failure.” When one key part of their system breaks, it can cause widespread outages.

The 2025 incidents highlight the risks of depending heavily on just a few cloud providers. Centralization concentrates power and risk in too few hands, leading to large-scale service interruptions.

Cloud Computing vs. Decentralized Computing: What’s the Difference?

To understand why decentralization matters, it helps to first know how traditional cloud computing works and how it differs from decentralized computing.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing means running applications and storing data on servers owned and managed by big companies like Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), or Google Cloud. These companies operate huge data centers filled with powerful computers that handle millions of requests every second. When you use an app or website hosted on the cloud, your data and processing happen on their servers.

Cloud computing makes it easier and cheaper for companies to launch services without owning physical hardware. It offers scalability, speed, and centralized control, but it also means:

• Your service depends on these companies’ infrastructure.
• If their data center or network goes down, your app can go offline.
• You have limited visibility and control over how your data is handled.

What is Decentralized Computing?

Decentralized computing breaks away from this model. Instead of relying on a few large data centers, decentralized systems spread computing tasks across many independent servers or nodes. These nodes can be owned by different people or organizations, working together without a central authority.

This setup brings several advantages:

• Resilience: If one or more nodes fail, the network keeps running smoothly.
• Reduced Risk: No single company controls the entire system, lowering the chance of widespread outages.
• Transparency: Users can often see and verify how their data and transactions are handled.
• Greater Control: Decentralization supports ideas like digital sovereignty, where users have more power over their data.

How Does Lync Stay Online? The Decentralized Advantage

Lync was built differently. Instead of relying on centralized cloud providers, Lync runs on bare-metal servers distributed across multiple locations. This design means:

• There is no single point of failure.
• The infrastructure is engineered for true 24/7 uptime.
• Computing and data are spread across independent servers, making the system resilient even when parts of the internet fail.

During the Cloudflare and AWS outages, Lync’s network kept running smoothly without interruptions, proof that decentralization works.

Why Decentralization Matters

Decentralization means distributing computing power, data and services across many independent systems instead of putting all eggs in one basket. Think of it like a city’s power grid: a centralized system is like relying on one power plant, which, if it fails, leaves everyone in the dark. Decentralization is like having multiple power plants, if one goes down, the others keep the lights on.

Decentralized systems offer:

• Distributed Servers: Running services on many servers in different locations.
• Redundancy: Automatic backups take over if one server fails.
• Improved Security: Harder to attack or censor since there’s no single target.
• User Control: More transparency and control over data.

The Limits of Centralized Cloud Services

The 2025 outages show why trusting only centralized cloud providers is risky:

• Failures can affect millions at once.
  
• Users often don’t know how their data is protected.
  
• Businesses and individuals have limited control over outages.

As more critical services move online, the need for more reliable infrastructure grows.

What This Means for Businesses and Users

Downtime costs money, time and trust. For businesses, outages mean lost sales and unhappy customers. For users, it means interrupted communication and lost productivity.

After these outages, many companies are reconsidering their cloud strategies, exploring decentralized alternatives to improve uptime and resilience. For users, choosing services built on decentralized infrastructure means better reliability and peace of mind.

The Future Is Decentralized

The internet was designed to be distributed, but centralization crept in over time to simplify management and scale. The 2025 outages remind us that decentralization is essential for the future.

Lync’s decentralized infrastructure offers a vision of a more resilient internet, one where no single failure can bring everything down. It supports constant uptime, stronger security, and empowers users and businesses to operate without fear of unexpected disruptions.

Decentralization is no longer just a technology trend; it’s the foundation for a more reliable, secure, and open internet that serves everyone equally. Moving forward, decentralization will be key to building the always-on digital world we all depend on.