The newspaper said the incidents resulted from errors involving Amazon’s own tool, known as Kiro. In one case in mid-December, AWS customers experienced a 13-hour interruption.

Engineers had allowed the tool to carry out certain system changes. It then decided to “delete and recreate the environment”, the report said, which led to the disruption.

AWS disputed that account.

In an emailed response to Reuters, a company spokesperson said the disruption was brief and blamed it on user error. “This brief event was the result of user error-specifically misconfigured access controls, not AI.”

The spokesperson added that the interruption was “an extremely limited event” affecting a single service in one of AWS’s two mainland China regions. It did not impact compute, storage, database, AI technologies, or any other AWS services, the company said.

The December incidents follow an outage in October that disrupted Amazon’s cloud operations globally. That earlier failure affected Amazon’s own services and several high-profile apps, including Reddit, Roblox and Snapchat.

AWS is the cloud division of Amazon and supports a large share of the internet’s infrastructure. Because of that reach, even short interruptions can affect millions of users and businesses.

Both Amazon Web Services outages in December have drawn attention because they involved automation tools that can act with limited human input.

Cloud providers have been expanding the use of such systems to manage complex infrastructure. At the same time, customers expect stability and clear accountability when problems occur.

Competitors including Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are also developing automated tools to manage their platforms.

AWS maintains that the December disruption resulted from misconfigured access controls, not from the coding tool acting on its own.

Payments now move seamlessly across platforms, identity systems verify millions of citizens, and a vibrant start-up ecosystem has attracted global attention and capital.

These are not small achievements. Yet, beneath this progress lies a harder question that Nigeria must now confront. Have we built enough depth to turn digital promise into sustained productive capacity?

The issue is no longer whether Nigeria can adopt digital tools. That debate has been settled. The more consequential question is whether the country can build, secure, and export digital value at scale.

As artificial intelligence and advanced digital services reshape the global economy, Nigeria faces a choice that will define the coming decade. We can become a producer of digital solutions that serve global markets, or remain largely a consumer and data source for platforms built elsewhere.

This is not a distant concern. Nigeria’s demographic advantage is real but time-bound. With roughly seventy percent of the population under the age of thirty, the country has one of the largest youth cohorts in the world.

At the same time, global demand for digital skills is accelerating, while established outsourcing hubs such as India, Eastern Europe, and parts of Southeast Asia continue to consolidate their lead. For Nigeria, moving from emerging promise to reliable delivery will require infrastructure that goes far beyond surface-level innovation.

Beneath the Progress

Nigeria has made meaningful strides in digital connectivity and basic services. Fintech platforms process billions of transactions annually, digital identity systems such as the NIN and BVN are becoming embedded in economic life, and regulators continue to refine frameworks to support innovation. These efforts form a necessary foundation. However, they represent only the first layer of a mature digital economy.

What remains underdeveloped is the deeper layer where trust, security, and institutional resilience reside.

This includes enterprise-grade platforms capable of supporting complex operations, data governance systems that balance innovation with protection, cybersecurity frameworks that safeguard critical infrastructure, and human capital with the depth to deliver at scale under real-world constraints.

The cost of this gap is increasingly evident. Many enterprises remain cautious about adopting local digital platforms due to trust and security concerns.

Cyber incidents continue to erode confidence. While thousands of young Nigerians are trained in basic digital skills each year, too few are equipped to deliver complex, export-ready solutions.

Investment often flows into consumption-driven models rather than infrastructure plays, not because ambition is lacking, but because the foundation still appears fragile.

Meanwhile, global competition is intensifying. The same technologies creating opportunity are also lowering barriers for faster-moving competitors.

Nigeria’s next phase of digital growth must therefore be deliberate, focused, and anchored on infrastructure that enables trust, depth, and resilience.

Trust as Infrastructure

Cybersecurity must be understood as economic infrastructure, not merely a technical concern. Without secure systems, enterprise-scale digital transformation cannot take root.

Without trust, sustained investment in Nigerian digital platforms will remain limited. And without resilience across banking, energy, telecommunications, and public sector systems, Nigeria’s digital sovereignty remains exposed.

Threats are becoming more targeted and sophisticated, yet a gap persists between regulatory intent and operational capability.

Indigenous expertise in areas such as operational technology security, cloud architecture, and threat intelligence remains limited. Heavy dependence on foreign vendors for sovereignty-critical systems creates both economic leakage and strategic vulnerability.

This challenge also presents an opportunity. The global cybersecurity workforce gap now runs into millions of unfilled roles.

Countries that build credible local capacity can not only secure their own infrastructure but also export expertise.

For Nigeria, trust infrastructure is not just about deploying tools. It is about embedding security by design, protecting critical assets such as power grids and telecom networks, establishing credible data governance frameworks, and developing local professionals who understand both global standards and local realities.

Across Africa, governments and enterprises are seeking cybersecurity partners they can trust culturally and strategically. Nigeria is well positioned to serve as a regional hub for secure digital infrastructure, but only if investment in capability development begins in earnest.

This calls for coordinated action. Government must elevate cybersecurity as a national priority backed by resources and institutional clarity. The private sector must invest in building expertise rather than simply reselling imported solutions.

Training institutions must focus on applied security skills that translate directly into operational readiness.

Nigeria’s digital talent challenge is not one of numbers alone. It is a question of depth. While many young people acquire introductory skills, employers continue to report gaps in system architecture, production readiness, and large-scale delivery. Knowing how to code is not the same as knowing how to design resilient systems, manage security risks, or deliver under enterprise constraints.

Short-term training programmes play an important role as entry points, but they cannot be endpoints. A productive digital economy requires layered capability.

Mid-level engineers who execute reliably, architects who design for scale, security specialists who understand evolving threats, and data professionals who can build robust pipelines. Global markets do not pay for potential. They pay for proven delivery.

Effective human capital development therefore looks different from the current approach. It requires work-integrated learning, sustained mentorship, and exposure to real production environments.

It demands specialisation pathways rather than one-size-fits-all training. Most importantly, it requires alignment with market demand in areas such as cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, DevSecOps, and advanced analytics.

The opportunity is immediate. Global demand for digital skills continues to outstrip supply, particularly in advanced roles.

Even a modest share of the global services market could translate into billions in export revenue and tens of thousands of high-value jobs for Nigeria. Achieving this will require coordination across government agencies, training providers, employers, and international partners, all focused on outcomes rather than credentials.

Building for the Long Term

Nigeria’s start-up energy is valuable, but it must be complemented by institution building. Sustainable digital economies are anchored by platforms and enterprises that compound value over time.

These businesses are often less visible than consumer apps, yet they form the backbone of productivity and resilience.

Institutional strength comes from repeatable processes, secure and interoperable systems, and business models that solve real problems profitably. It also depends on a policy environment that rewards long-term investment.

Predictable regulation, procurement frameworks that support indigenous capability, enforceable contracts, and incentives that favour production over extraction all matter.

There is also a strategic dimension. Digital infrastructure is national infrastructure. Excessive reliance on foreign platforms for critical systems introduces vulnerabilities that extend beyond economics. Building local capability supports both diversification and sovereignty.

From Potential to Production

Success over the next few years should be measured clearly. Growth in digital and software exports, Nigerian firms competing credibly for regional and global contracts, visible improvements in cybersecurity resilience, and talent pipelines producing work-ready professionals. These outcomes require focus and coordination, not slogans.

Nigeria has the talent, market scale, and entrepreneurial energy needed to succeed. What remains is the discipline to invest in foundations rather than appearances, in delivery rather than aspiration.

The shift from digital consumption to digital production will not happen by accident. It will require intent, patience, and collaboration.

The global digital economy will not wait. Nigeria’s demographic advantage is valuable, but it is not permanent.

The work of turning promise into productive capacity must begin now, with infrastructure that enables trust, depth, and long-term value creation.

The two-day conference, themed “The Big Bold Step,” brought together telecoms operators, global technology firms, startups, investors, students and public-sector leaders at Landmark Event Centre to discuss what it will take for Africa to stop lagging and start building platforms of its own.

From keynote sessions to fireside chats and product showcases, the conference stressed that the limitations initially preventing African companies from competing at scale are fading away, but hesitation remains highly expensive.

Glory Olamigoke, co-founder and co-convener of Tech Revolution Africa, said the conference was designed to close a persistent gap in the ecosystem.

“We are trying to solve a number of problems and close a number of gaps, but perhaps the most critical one is bridging the gap between the early stage innovators, builders, founders in the ecosystem and the leaders in the space,” he said.

Unlike typical industry gatherings, Olamigoke said the event was intentionally structured to bring founders and decision-makers into the same room, while also extending its reach beyond established stakeholders.

“We are going all the way down to the secondary schools, the primary schools, because we believe that if we can start to culture these young ones, then we will be able to influence the next generation,” he said, pointing to the student tech debates introduced at this year’s edition.

That emphasis on long-term capacity building was reiterated through the day’s conversations, including a fireside chat with the Federal Government, represented by Lagos State Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Olatunbosun Alake.

Drawing from Nigeria’s reputation challenges abroad, Alake said that while technology is important, Africa’s potential cannot be realised without addressing surrounding challenges, including Nigeria’s image abroad.

“It’s not a technology conversation,” he said. “It’s a conversation that is at the very bottom of the motivation behind everything.”

He urged young professionals to engage the public sector rather than avoid it, describing the work as difficult but impactful. “By all means, do that, because you will have an impact, but make sure that your principles and your values remain strong,” he said.

MTN Nigeria’s keynote on the digital economy forecast for 2026, delivered by its Chief Information Officer, Shoyinka Shodunke, went beyond a focus on growth projections. 

Shodunke traced Africa’s marginal role across previous industrial revolutions and warned that the fourth leaves little room for delay.

“The inputs today are data, and where’s the factory? The factory sits in the cloud,” he said, adding that talent is no longer bound by geography and computing power no longer requires heavy capital outlay.

He pointed to cloud subscriptions available “at $50” compared to six-figure infrastructure costs in the past, arguing that scale is now accessible to startups and enterprises alike. But he warned that comfort with legacy revenue streams could still hold organisations back.

“You cannot live with a legacy mindset, a fear of disruption, or the comfort of mediocrity,” Shodunke said.

Using MTN as a case study, he explained how the telecoms giant has had to intentionally disrupt itself, moving beyond voice and data into cloud services, fintech and intelligent platforms layered on top of its network infrastructure.

The focus on infrastructure continued during MTN’s product showcase, where Onome Ologe and Tobechukwu Ajoku outlined the company’s local cloud services, emphasising data residency, naira-based pricing and predictable operating costs for Nigerian businesses.

“If you’re a CFO or a founder and you need to know cost accountability, you can go to sleep,” Ajoku said, noting that pricing remains stable regardless of foreign exchange volatility.

From infrastructure, the conversation at Tech Revolution Africa 2.0 moved into data and artificial intelligence during a presentation by Ligadata’s Mike Penner, who revealed the scale of its partnership with MTN Nigeria’s data operations.

“We now are running at 1.2 trillion pet records, 1.4 million records per second,” Penner said, describing a system designed to turn fragmented enterprise data into real-time, actionable intelligence.

“What we’ve done over the past few years at MTN together is something extraordinary,” he said, adding that the goal was not experimentation but measurable value creation.

Penner noted that African enterprises must treat data and knowledge as sovereign assets, warning against outsourcing intelligence without understanding what drives it.

That theme of sovereignty and control resurfaced during a panel on open innovation and hybrid platforms featuring executives from Red Hat and Redington. 

Speakers explained that open-source software and hybrid cloud models offer African companies flexibility without locking them into single platforms or geographies.

“Open source is driving innovation.” It is a condition of innovation, particularly for startups seeking speed without prohibitive expenses.

During a fireside chat on Global Tech & the African Market, Soji Maurice-Diya, CEO of ntel (NatCom), emphasized the need for Africa to focus on solving its own problems rather than simply chasing global trends.

He said, “Nobody’s going to solve our problems for us. Yes, we need global access, we need all the technology that’s available, taper all of the solutions and build our own solutions.”

Maurice-Diya added that African companies should prioritise innovation that addresses local challenges, ensuring technology creates measurable impact rather than just replicating global models.

Equinix’s Ayomide Jones, EMEA Business Development, West Africa, also spoke on the role of interconnection in Africa’s digital growth. She highlighted how networks, content and cloud providers work together to enhance modern businesses. 

“Everything we use nowadays to solve our problems is content. This is only possible because of interconnection,” Jones said. 

She explained that Equinix’s data centres in Lagos and across Africa enable startups and enterprises to connect to cloud services, financial systems, and global platforms without heavy upfront investment, creating the infrastructure that allows African businesses to scale quickly.

For all the talk of opportunity, speakers repeatedly returned to execution as the differentiator. “We always talk, so now, let’s go back and execute,” Olamigoke said.

Day Two of Tech Revolution Africa Conference 2.0 continues on Saturday, with further sessions on policy, investment, emerging technologies and the role of African enterprises in strengthening the continent’s digital economy.

The startup is targeting a problem many companies feel but rarely insure against, which is cloud outages that shut down operations, stall payments and damage trust within minutes. 

Mantas says downtime is no longer a technical issue. It is a clear financial risk, and it should be treated as one.

The seed round drew backing from Nuwa Capital, Suhail Ventures, Plus VC, OQAL Angel Syndicate and a group of strategic angel investors. 

The funds will be used to build out its product, strengthen risk models and begin early deployments across the Middle East, North Africa and North America.

Cloud infrastructure now underpins everything from payments to flight bookings. When it fails, the impact is swift. But most companies still rely on service-level agreements, legal clauses or internal fixes that do little to cover actual losses. 

That gap is seen in how businesses respond after an outage, confusion first, financial pain later.

Mantas is taking a different route. Its policies are based on parametric insurance. That means payouts are triggered automatically once verified outage conditions are met, without drawn-out claims or negotiations. If the cloud goes down and the agreed threshold is crossed, the payment follows.

“Cloud downtime is now one of the largest unpriced liabilities in the digital economy, as outages at AWS and Azure in late 2025 demonstrated,” said Basil Mimi, CEO and co-founder of Mantas. 

“Businesses have engineered their systems for scale and speed, but the financial layer has not kept up. Parametric insurance allows us to turn cloud outages into a measurable and insurable risk, giving companies certainty at the exact moment they need it most.”

The company focuses on digital-first sectors where constant uptime is necessary. These include fintech, airlines, e-commerce platforms, software providers and regulated enterprises. 

Alongside coverage, Mantas provides real-time monitoring that shows firms how exposed they are and where weaknesses sit, before something breaks.

The idea behind the company came from a moment. Mimi was trying to order food when an outage rippled across systems. What looked minor quickly turned into reputational damage and financial loss for the business involved. 

From his background as a software engineer, what l stood out was that the outage could be measured, but the loss was not insured.

That mismatch is growing. Cloud usage is becoming more concentrated, especially around a few large providers. In North America, outages are increasingly wide-ranging rather than isolated. 

In the Middle East, governments and companies are moving fast into cloud-first setups. In both cases, financial protection has lagged behind dependence.

Investors say this link between real-world infrastructure behaviour and insurance is what sets Mantas apart.

“Downtime is often treated as a technical issue, but for digital businesses it’s increasingly a financial one. Mantas’ approach stood out to us because it ties insurance coverage directly to how infrastructure behaves in the real world, rather than how it’s described on paper. 

“That’s an important step forward for this type of risk.” said Arnav Danthi, principal at Nuwa Capital.

Plus VC also pointed to the team’s execution and focus.

“At Plus VC, we back exceptional founders building category-defining companies, and Mantas is a strong reflection of that conviction. The company is redefining cyber insurance through its technology-driven MGA model, combining tailored coverage with predictive analytics to address one of today’s most critical risks, cloud downtime. 

“What impressed us most is the team’s deep domain expertise, strong execution mindset, and their ability to translate complex risk data into actionable insights that help businesses proactively mitigate exposure. 

“We are excited to support Basil, Abdallah, and the Mantas team as they scale this differentiated platform regionally and beyond,” said Hasan Haider, founder and managing partner at Plus VC.

Ayat Alsabbagh, Principal of Suhail Ventures also said: “We are proud to be partnering with Mantas in leading the shift towards data-driven business protection. 

“The combination of Mantas real-time analytics with parametric insurance will significantly help companies minimise losses from cyber threats and cloud outages in a rapidly growing market. We believe Mantas is setting a new standard for securing enterprise continuity through innovative insurance solutions.”

Mantas plans to expand its insurance coverage as cloud systems become more connected and failures spread faster across services. The goal is to help businesses that lean into complex digital infrastructure, so they are not left exposed when that infrastructure fails.

With many companies looking for stronger safeguards after recent internet disruptions exposed weaknesses in single-cloud setups, the launch comes just in time.

Both firms said the service allows customers to build secure, high-capacity connections between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud in minutes. Before now, many organisations waited weeks to complete the same process due to the technical and approval delays tied to cross-cloud circuits.

Just over a month ago, AWS suffered a major outage on October 20 that spread through its US-East-1 region. A faulty update to DynamoDB’s API triggered DNS failures across the zone, breaking more than 113 AWS services and knocking out platforms such as Snapchat, Reddit, Coinbase and Alexa. 

Analysts estimate the disruption costs U.S. companies between $500 million and $650 million. For many firms, the incident revealed the risk of placing all operations on a single cloud provider.

In response, interest in multicloud resilience has grown. The new service blends AWS’ Interconnect–multicloud with Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud Interconnect. The aim is to remove friction for organisations that want systems running across several clouds without slow setup cycles or unpredictable routing.

AWS vice president of network services, Robert Kennedy, said the development points to a major shift in how cloud platforms interact. “This collaboration between AWS and Google Cloud represents a fundamental shift in multicloud connectivity.”

Google Cloud also noted the benefit for companies moving large volumes of data between providers. Its vice president and general manager of cloud networking, Rob Enns, stated that the joint framework is meant to simplify workload mobility. Salesforce is one of the early adopters of the new model, according to Google.

Cloud competition is highly intense. AWS continues to top the global market with roughly 29–30% share, while Microsoft Azure holds about 20% and Google Cloud has climbed toward 13%. 

In the third quarter alone, the cloud infrastructure market was valued at around $107 billion, controlled largely by these three companies.

Heavy investment in infrastructure is expected to continue. Increasing demand for artificial intelligence is pushing cloud providers to expand data centres, improve capacity and strengthen network routes. 

AWS recently committed to a multi-year $38 billion partnership with OpenAI, offering access to large clusters of Nvidia GPUs. Google and Microsoft are making similar bets, as AI workloads remain one of the biggest drivers of cloud growth.

In working together on a cross-cloud standard, Amazon and Google have taken an unusual step. The two companies are long-standing competitors, but the new partnership shows a shared interest in reducing latency and making multicloud operations easier for enterprise customers. 

For large users like Salesforce, the ability to deploy cross-cloud links in minutes rather than weeks may prove decisive as businesses seek more resilient infrastructure after recent outages.

The investment will fund the expansion of advanced data centres, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and talent development programmes across the country.

According to Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, the company’s focus is to meet the UAE’s surging demand for AI technology. “The biggest share of (the investment), by far, both looking back and looking forward, is the expansion of AI data centres across the UAE,” Smith told Reuters during the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi. 

He added, “From our perspective, it’s an investment that is critical to meet the demand here for the use of AI.”

The new funding comes after Microsoft’s $1.5 billion equity investment in G42, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign AI company, last year, a deal that also gave the U.S. firm a board seat. 

G42 has faced some issues in Washington over previous ties with China, but Smith noted that the company had made “enormous progress” in aligning with U.S. legal and compliance standards.

Part of the funding will go towards providing Microsoft’s data centres with some of the most powerful chips available. Licences approved by both the Biden and Trump administrations now allow the company to export thousands of Nvidia GPUs to the UAE. 

Smith revealed that Microsoft currently holds the equivalent of 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs in the country, combining models such as A100, H100, and H200. More recently, approvals have been granted for an additional 60,400 A100-equivalent GB300 chips, which are expected to arrive within months.

Between 2023 and the end of this year, Microsoft will have spent $7.3 billion in the UAE. A further $7.9 billion is scheduled for deployment between 2026 and 2029, covering cloud expansion, data centre development, and local operating costs. 

None of this figure includes Microsoft’s involvement in Stargate UAE, a massive data hub announced earlier this year during U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gulf visit.

Smith, in a detailed post on Microsoft’s website, said the company’s approach in the UAE extends beyond technology. It includes driving local talent, building trust, and enhancing economic collaboration between the U.S. and the UAE. 

Microsoft’s workforce in the Emirates now includes nearly 1,000 employees of 40 nationalities, supported by a partner ecosystem of over 1,400 firms employing about 45,000 professionals nationwide.

The company recently established a Global Engineering Development Centre in Abu Dhabi and expanded its AI for Good Lab, focusing on research that benefits communities across Africa and the Middle East. Efforts include training language models for low-resource African languages and skilling one million people in the UAE by 2027.

In February, Microsoft and G42, alongside the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, founded the Responsible AI Future Foundation (RAIFF) in Abu Dhabi to promote ethical AI standards across the Global South. 

The foundation’s work complements an Intergovernmental Assurance Agreement (IGAA), a framework developed with U.S. and UAE input to ensure compliance with American export, cybersecurity, and data protection laws.

“Talent is the engine of AI leadership,” Smith wrote. “Attracting, nurturing, and building AI talent and know-how is essential to the UAE turning its vision of becoming a global leader into a reality.”

With this investment in the UAE, Microsoft is linking American innovation with Emirati ambition through what Smith described as “technology, talent, and trust.”

The disruption, which originated from AWS’s US-EAST-1 data centre in Ashburn, Virginia, lasted several hours and left millions of users unable to access services such as Snapchat, Reddit, Venmo, Zoom, and even Amazon’s own Prime Video and Alexa. 

According to outage tracking site Downdetector, more than four million users globally reported problems during the incident.

By 3:01 p.m. PT (10:00 p.m. GMT), Amazon confirmed that “all AWS services returned to normal operations. Some services such as AWS Config, Redshift, and Connect continue to have a backlog of messages that they will finish processing over the next few hours.”

Root Cause: Network Health Monitor Failure

AWS identified the source of the failure as a malfunction in a subsystem that monitors the health of its network load balancers, a key component responsible for distributing traffic across multiple servers. 

The fault within its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) network also triggered a Domain Name System (DNS) error that prevented apps from locating DynamoDB, one of AWS’s most critical database services.

The outage, Amazon confirmed, “originated from within the EC2 internal network,” once again placing focus on the US-EAST-1 cluster, the same region linked to similar breakdowns in 2020 and 2021. Despite repeated failures in this location, the company has yet to explain why the data centre is still a recurring weak point.

Global Impact: From Banks to Gaming Platforms

The outage exposed the scale of global dependence on AWS. Major banks, telecom firms, and government agencies across Europe and North America reported downtime. In Britain, Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Vodafone, BT, and even the UK tax and customs authority (HMRC) experienced service interruptions.

For consumers, the impact was immediate and across-the-board. Social platforms like Snapchat and Reddit went dark, while fintech platforms such as Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase froze transactions. 

Gaming networks, including Fortnite, Roblox, Clash Royale, and Clash of Clans, were also affected. Lyft users in the United States were unable to book rides, and airline check-in systems at LaGuardia Airport in New York temporarily failed.

Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and trading app Robinhood were among those confirming that AWS was at the root of their service disruptions. Even Signal, the encrypted messaging platform, was hit. “This outage once again highlights the dependency we have on relatively fragile infrastructures,” said Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at European security firm ESET.

Experts Warn of Fragile Cloud Dependency

The scale of the outage has reignited talks about the world’s overreliance on a handful of cloud providers, Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, which collectively power a vast portion of global digital infrastructure.

“This was the third major AWS outage in five years linked to the same region,” said Ken Birman, professor of Computer Science at Cornell University. “When people cut costs and cut corners to try to get an application up, and then forget that they skipped that last step and didn’t really protect against an outage, those companies are the ones who really ought to be scrutinised later.”

Ryan Griffin, U.S. cyber practice leader at McGill and Partners, added that “for major businesses, hours of cloud downtime translate to millions in lost productivity and revenue.”

Recurring Weakness in US-EAST-1

The Ashburn-based US-EAST-1 cluster is AWS’s oldest and largest region, usually set as the default for many of its services. This makes it a single point of failure, and experts argue that the region’s recurring issues demonstrate the risks of centralised cloud design.

Nishanth Sastry, director of Research at the University of Surrey’s Department of Computer Science, said the incident was predictable. “The main reason for this issue is that all these big companies have relied on just one service,” he noted.

Market Reaction and Next Steps

Despite the global disruption, Wall Street remained largely indifferent. Amazon’s shares closed 1.6% higher at $216.48 on Monday. The company has promised to release a detailed post-event summary but has not clarified whether structural changes will be made to prevent a repeat of the incident.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) global outage, the largest since last year’s CrowdStrike malfunction that crippled hospitals, banks, and airports, tells us that the cloud’s convenience comes with fragility. 

The outage, which originated from AWS’s US-EAST-1 region, began in the early hours of Monday and quickly spread beyond the United States, affecting Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

According to AWS’s own status dashboard, multiple services are currently “impacted” due to “increased error rates and latencies,” with engineers “actively engaged and working to both mitigate the issue and understand root cause.”

For users, the impact has been immediate and widespread. Alexa devices have gone silent, unable to respond to voice commands or execute daily routines like alarms and reminders. 

Developers and businesses using AWS’s cloud network, from Airtable to Perplexity AI and the McDonald’s app, have also been hit. Even high-traffic entertainment platforms like Fortnite, Roblox, and Rainbow Six Siege are offline.

Downdetector, a platform that tracks service disruptions, has logged over 2,000 incident reports in the U.S. alone since the outage began. On Reddit and X (formerly Twitter), frustrated users across time zones have shared screenshots of failed connections and frozen dashboards.

“Perplexity is down right now,” confirmed Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, in a post on X. “The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it.”

Amazon, in its latest public update at 3:51 a.m. ET, noted that it would provide further information every 45 minutes “or sooner if we have additional information to share.” However, at the time of writing, there is still no estimated timeline for full restoration.

This isn’t the first time AWS’s US-EAST-1 region has been the source of widespread disruption. Similar outages in December 2021, November 2020, and June 2023 took down high-profile platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Slack, Zoom, and Twitch. 

Each incident revealed an issue across the tech industry, that a large portion of the global internet depends heavily on a single cloud provider’s regional infrastructure.

The current outage appears to have hit both consumer-facing apps and backend systems, including AWS’s own Support Center and Support API, which organisations rely on for case creation and troubleshooting.

While AWS has reiterated that engineers are investigating the problem, the lack of transparency about the specific cause of the outage is driving industry-wide anxiety. Many are now revisiting familiar cases of how much centralisation is too much when the internet’s backbone depends on just a handful of companies.

For now, millions of users are in a holding pattern, waiting, refreshing, and hoping their devices come back online soon.

In this space, companies like MainOne (now Equinix), Rack Centre, and WIOCC through its Open Access Data Centres (OADC), are investing heavily to strengthen Nigeria’s digital backbone. 

But which of them is best positioned to ensure growth across the Nigerian startups sector?

MainOne (Equinix): The Global Reach & Certification Anchor

MainOne has leveraged its submarine cable system, fibre optic network, and its acquisition by Equinix to offer reach and certified reliability. Its data centre arm, MDXi, holds the Uptime Institute Tier III Constructed Facility certification (TCCF), among several other certifications (PCI-DSS, SAP Infrastructure Services, ISO 27001 & 9001). 

Its Network Connect and Cloud Connect services link local branches or clouds with global infrastructure. For example, by routing traffic via its submarine cable and leveraging Equinix Fabric, it offers predictable performance and connectivity from Lagos to key global hubs.

Power reliability, a common pain point in Nigeria, is one of MainOne’s standout strengths. Its Lagos data centre integrates multiple power redundancies, utility partnerships, and high-capacity generators to maintain near-continuous uptime. That’s essential for startups whose businesses can’t afford downtime.

Still, MainOne’s premium-grade services usually come at higher prices. For small or growing startups, that might make it more suitable at later stages of expansion rather than at the beginning.

So, MainOne offers scale, high certifications, international interconnect, and relatively lower risk from interruptions.

Rack Centre: The Nimble, Neutral & Efficiency-Driven Option

Rack Centre carved its reputation as Nigeria’s first carrier-neutral Tier III certified data centre. Unlike most competitors, it is not owned by any telecom or internet provider, which gives clients the flexibility to interconnect with over 70 different carriers and ISPs. That neutrality is one of its biggest competitive edges.

Its location in Oregun, Lagos, provides direct access to all the major undersea cables serving Nigeria, including WACS, MainOne, Glo-1, SAT-3 and ACE. The result is low latency, strong redundancy, and smooth interconnection between local networks.

Rack Centre’s new LGS2 facility represents a huge step forward. The 12MW hyperscale and AI-ready centre is designed for exceptional energy efficiency and sustainability, with advanced cooling systems and a lower Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio. This reduces operational costs and aligns with global sustainability standards, an important factor for modern tech companies.

Its approach appeals particularly to startups seeking flexibility, local performance, and freedom from vendor lock-ins. However, Rack Centre’s challenge is scale: it has a solid local presence but lacks the global integration that Equinix offers through MainOne.

One of its strongest propositions is neutrality: Rack Centre is not owned by a telco, ISP or cloud provider; it does not compete with its tenants; therefore, there is less risk of vendor lock-in or conflict. 

For startups, especially those scaling fast, Rack Centre tends to offer strong locality benefits: low latency within Nigeria, strong peering via IXPN, predictable interconnects, and usually more flexible arrangements for rack space or interconnection.

WIOCC / OADC: The Pan-African Connector, Big Capacity Incoming

WIOCC, via its Open Access Data Centres (OADC) arm, is scaling aggressively. Its strategy is open access, hyperscale capacity, and linking regional networks. 

OADC’s expansion plan is one of the biggest in the sector. The company has committed over $240 million to expand its Lagos data centre to 24 megawatts by 2027, starting with a 12MW first phase. The facility is designed to support cloud providers, hyperscale clients, and growing tech firms that need capacity and cross-border connectivity.

WIOCC also launched OAfabric, its cloud interconnection platform, which allows businesses to connect directly to international cloud services through a simplified interface. Combined with its wide fibre and submarine network, it aims to provide both affordability and regional reach.

That said, OADC’s infrastructure in Nigeria is still relatively new, with much of its full capacity under development. The scale and potential are enormous, but the market will need to see consistent delivery over time.

Its strength is scale (once the full capacity is live), strong peering potential across borders, and an open access model that benefits ISPs, cloud providers and telcos who need wholesale connectivity.

Comparing Strengths and Trade-offs

Each company brings something unique to Nigeria’s digital economy. MainOne is on top when it comes to global integration and enterprise-grade reliability, backed by Equinix’s global standards. For Rack Centre, it’s in neutrality, local performance, and energy efficiency, making it ideal for startups prioritising flexibility and cost control. WIOCC, meanwhile, is building a network that could redefine cross-border connectivity and scale for Africa’s data economy once fully realised.

In terms of reliability, both MainOne and Rack Centre already provide strong uptime backed by Tier III certifications. MainOne’s international connectivity gives it an advantage for startups with global vision. Rack Centre provides a more accessible, locally optimised alternative for startups that value independence and direct peering with multiple providers. WIOCC is the long-term investment, its pan-African fibre network and future 24MW capacity could make it the infrastructure giant to watch.

What I Think Startups Should Care About Most

If I were advising a startup today, I would tell them:

• Get your foundation right: data sovereignty, uptime, and latency are not optional. Pick a provider with strong certifications and multiple power/fibre redundancy.
• Think about the cost-to-scale: what looks affordable at 10 racks may be expensive at 100. Check how interconnect charges, cross-connects, and peering fees scale.
• Be wary of lock-in. Providers that are carrier-neutral and open access give more flexibility to mix and match cloud, network, and hosting providers.
• Monitor sustainability and total cost of ownership. Facilities that waste energy or have unreliable back-up power may cost more when things go wrong.

Who’s Best Positioned?

Each of these providers has a part. If I had to pick:

• For startups already serving international customers or aiming to scale globally, MainOne/Equinix remains ahead because of its global interconnection, submarine cable reach, and certifications.
• For startups focused on Nigeria or nearby countries and needing lower latency, predictable interconnect and flexible arrangements, Rack Centre looks like a strong option.
• For companies needing wholesale capacity, cross-border reach, or anticipating rapid growth in cloud usage, WIOCC/OADC will likely pull ahead once their full capacity is available and stable.

In short: there is no single perfect choice. But the competition among these three is powerful for our ecosystem. Startups will benefit as they force better reliability, lower prices, and greater innovation. And I’m positive the fate of Nigerian startups looks brighter if we build this backbone well.

With the holiday season here already, both global and Nigerian eCommerce platforms are already seeing high demand. This period brings high-stakes pressure to retailers as consumers rely more on online stores for shopping.

In the US alone, online sales reached $288.8 billion in the third quarter of 2024, a 7.46% increase year-over-year (YoY) from the third quarter of 2023. 

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s eCommerce market, valued at $8.53 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $14.92 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.82% during the forecast period.

This surge reiterates how much eCommerce is becoming indispensable, particularly during peak shopping seasons. 

However, with the holiday rush, it’s a big wonder if technology can keep up with the high demands of holiday shoppers, or are cracks starting to show under the weight of consumer expectations? Millions of shoppers converge on online stores, pushing the system to its limits. Any glitch, any hiccup, can have catastrophic consequences.

The Pressure on eCommerce Platforms

Over 40% of annual retail sales occur between Thanksgiving and Christmas globally and Nigerian platforms like Jumia have seen commendable growth. Jumia recently reported an 18% year-on-year increase in orders during the 2024 holiday season which is just starting. Imagine the percentage increase by year-end!

But while demand surges, so too do consumer expectations. In both the US and Nigeria, shoppers are now accustomed to fast deliveries, often within 24 to 48 hours, and seamless checkout. 

Research reveals that 70% of online shoppers abandon their carts due to poor user experience, while in Nigeria, 45% of consumers would switch platforms if delivery times exceed expectations.

For retailers, the stakes are high—failure to meet these expectations can result in lost sales, customer trust, and irreparable damage to a brand’s reputation. 

The need for operational efficiency has never been more important, as tech infrastructure limitations, supply chain disruptions, and cybersecurity issues threaten to obstruct smooth operations during the busy holiday season.

Challenges in Meeting Holiday Demands

Tech Infrastructure Limitations: Server overloads, slow website speeds, and outages are common during peak shopping periods. Last year’s Black Friday saw lots of disruptions, with Amazon experiencing intermittent outages as servers were unable to handle traffic peaks. 

In Nigeria, platforms like Jumia have faced similar issues, with users reporting delays in page load times and failures in processing transactions. The holiday surge often exceeds bandwidth capacity, causing slowdowns and customer frustration. This is why scalable, efficient infrastructure is required.

Supply Chain Disruptions: The global supply chain problem, worsened by the pandemic and logistical challenges, has made it more difficult to meet the rising demand for products. 

In 2023, more than 60% of global supply chains faced delays, leading to out-of-stock situations for major retailers. 

Platforms like Konga had delays in shipments from overseas suppliers, affecting the timely availability of high-demand goods such as electronics and fashion. Local delivery systems in Nigeria are also under pressure, with shipping times increasing by 20% during the holiday season, according to a report by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council.

Cybersecurity: The holidays also bring risks of cyberattacks, including data breaches and fraud. Last year, more than 500 million online accounts were compromised globally during the holiday shopping season. In Nigeria, the rise of digital payment fraud has led to increased cybersecurity anxieties. 

During the holiday season, cybersecurity agencies, including Nigeria’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), often issue warnings about an increase in fraudulent activities in eCommerce transactions. 

This period is particularly vulnerable to cyber threats due to the high volume of online transactions,  making individuals and companies more vigilant about the safety of online payment systems, and investing in more secure payment gateways.

AI and Personalisation Challenges: Personalisation technologies, including recommendation engines and dynamic pricing algorithms, are mostly unable to keep up with increased traffic. Reports reveal that nearly 40% of eCommerce websites experienced issues with AI algorithms during peak periods, causing pricing errors or incorrect recommendations. While recommendation engines of eCommerce platforms are improving, they struggle to scale effectively during the busiest shopping times.

Technology’s Role in Overcoming Challenges

Even with these challenges, technology is going beyond to ensure eCommerce platforms can meet the demands of holiday shoppers.

AI and Personalisation

AI, on the other hand, is being leveraged to enhance customer experiences. Personalised shopping through recommendation engines and targeted ads boosts satisfaction and drive sales. AI-driven chatbots are handling customer service inquiries efficiently, particularly during peak shopping times.

Automation in Warehousing and Logistics

Robotics and automation are enhancing warehouse operations, with AI-powered robots speeding up order fulfilment and automated sorting systems reducing processing time. Added to these, innovations such as drones and autonomous vehicles are being tested for last-mile delivery, improving delivery speed in urban areas.

Cloud Infrastructure for Scalability

To address server overloads and traffic surges, companies like Amazon and Nigerian platforms like Jumia are investing heavily in cloud infrastructure. Amazon’s AWS, for example, dynamically adjusts resources based on demand, while others have expanded their server capacity to manage increased traffic. Alibaba’s use of AI, robotics, and big data during Singles’ Day showcases how technology can handle massive spikes in transactions.

These improvements help to prevent slowdowns and outages that could lead to lost revenue.

AI-Driven Supply Chain Optimisation

AI-driven solutions are also aiding in inventory management and demand forecasting, helping platforms better predict customer demand and ensure stock availability. This has been a game-changer in reducing stockouts.

Platforms have implemented similar technologies, investing in AI for real-time inventory tracking and predictive analytics. During peak sales events like Black Friday, Jumia faced logistical challenges but responded by improving its partnerships with local couriers and enhancing its delivery tracking systems.

Cybersecurity Measures

The holiday season is notorious for cyberattacks, with the rise of digital payment fraud and data breaches. In Nigeria, over 35% of eCommerce transactions during the holiday period are flagged as potentially fraudulent. To tackle this, platforms are investing in more secure payment gateways and strengthening their cybersecurity protocols to safeguard customer data and maintain trust.

Advancements in Logistics Tech

Innovations like drone deliveries, automated warehouses, and real-time tracking are enhancing logistics capabilities. Globally, Walmart is using drones to expedite deliveries of small items, while companies like DHL and UPS are optimizing routes with AI-powered logistics platforms. In Nigeria, logistics startups like Max.ng are piloting drone deliveries in Lagos to handle last-mile delivery and reduce congestion in urban areas.

Enhanced Customer Experience Tools

AI-powered chatbots and the integration of AR/VR are enhancing the shopping experience. Companies like Shopify are using AI to offer personalised shopping experiences, while some other platforms are exploring virtual try-on technologies for fashion and beauty products. 

Companies have learnt from past holiday seasons when it comes to handling high demand. For instance, in 2022, Amazon’s infrastructure had some issues during Black Friday, but the company quickly scaled its cloud capacity and implemented predictive analytics to avoid similar issues in 2023. Similarly, Jumia has learned the importance of proactive logistics planning and clear customer communication.

Emerging Technologies and eCommerce

Emerging technologies like blockchain for secure transactions, quantum computing for better demand forecasting, and advancements in drone deliveries can further bolster eCommerce. 

In Nigeria, blockchain is being explored to improve transparency in supply chains, while some platforms are adopting eco-friendly delivery methods to reduce their carbon footprint.

These innovations can simplify processes, reduce fraud, and improve overall shopping for users. Quantum computing could boost demand forecasting and inventory management by processing large amounts of data more efficiently. 

Companies globally are experimenting with blockchain to improve transparency in supply chains, ensuring customers are informed about product sourcing and delivery times.

Reducing Carbon Footprint 

With growing consumer awareness of environmental issues, platforms are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. Companies like Amazon are investing in electric delivery vehicles to lower emissions, and some Nigerian platforms are working with eco-friendly delivery startups to offset carbon emissions during peak shopping periods. 

According to a report by the Nigerian Business Council, eCommerce platforms are considering environmental impact when selecting logistics partners.

The holiday shopping season is a hot one for retailers, eCommerce platforms, and technology providers. With demand surges, the question about eCommerce platforms and supporting technologies meeting these expectations, or the system causing some limitations during the holiday rush could be tied to efficiency in every process involved. 

What do you think—are eCommerce platforms ready for the holidays, or do you foresee some hiccups this season?