Don’t Keep All Your Data Eggs in One Basket
Don’t Keep All Your Data Eggs in One Basket: Cloud Durability and the Case for Multi-Cloud
Rethinking Cloud Durability
When it comes to storing business-critical data, most organisations assume that if it’s in the cloud, it’s safe. After all, the big names—AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure—promise staggering durability levels like “11 nines” (99.999999999%) and near-perfect uptime.
But as the old saying goes, don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. The reality is that even the largest cloud platforms can (and do) fail. And when they do, it doesn’t just cause inconvenience—it can take entire global services offline.
Recent Outages: Proof That Perfection Doesn’t Exist
In recent months, all three hyperscalers have experienced significant outages:
AWS outage – As reported by The Verge, major AWS infrastructure issues took down services including Alexa, Fortnite, and Snapchat. For hours, millions of users couldn’t access applications they rely on every day.
Google Cloud outage – Mashable detailed how a Google Cloud networking issue cascaded into widespread downtime across multiple regions, impacting developers, analytics platforms, and customer-facing apps.
Microsoft Azure outage – According to BleepingComputer, Azure downtime blocked access to Microsoft 365 services and admin portals—paralysing business users who depend on Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook.
These incidents show that even providers with “11 nines” durability claims aren’t immune to disruption. Whether due to software bugs, networking faults, or configuration errors, the outcome for end customers is the same—downtime and inaccessibility.
The Hidden Risk of One-Cloud Dependence
For many organisations, consolidating all infrastructure and data in a single provider’s ecosystem feels convenient—centralised management, unified billing, and straightforward integrations. But that simplicity comes at a cost.
When your workloads, backups, and archives all reside in the same environment, any provider-level outage becomes your outage. Even if the data itself isn’t lost, access interruptions can cripple operations, compliance workflows, or customer services.
The dependency risk goes deeper:
Egress and retrieval fees make moving data between clouds expensive.
Proprietary storage architectures make migration complex.
Latency and compatibility issues can deter multi-cloud adoption.
Yet, when something goes wrong, you’re reminded how fragile single-provider strategies can be.
A Different Approach: Building Real Resilience
Cloud Cold Storage is built on a foundation of Digital Realty data centres, which have delivered 99.999% uptime for over a decade—that’s less than 50 minutes of downtime in ten years.
Unlike the hyperscalers’ massive shared environments, Cloud Cold Storage leverages global, independent data centre infrastructure, offering stability and control without the overheads or lock-in.
The key message: durability and accessibility aren’t just about percentages—they’re about architecture, diversity, and redundancy.
Spreading Your Data Eggs: Multi-Cloud and Third-Party Backups
No single cloud can promise uninterrupted access forever. The smartest strategy isn’t to rely on one—it’s to build resilience through diversity:
Use a multi-cloud approach – Store critical workloads or backups across different providers to eliminate single points of failure.
Leverage third-party cold storage providers – Services like Cloud Cold Storage offer low-cost, high-durability storage without punitive egress fees, ideal for secondary or tertiary backups.
Test recovery procedures regularly – Backups are only as good as your ability to restore them quickly.
By taking a layered approach, you ensure that even if one provider goes offline, your business doesn’t.
The Bottom Line
The cloud is powerful—but not infallible. When AWS, Azure, or GCP experience outages, even the biggest brands go dark.
In a world where uptime, compliance, and customer experience depend on data accessibility, it’s time to stop keeping all your eggs in one basket. Distribute your data, diversify your providers, and protect your business against the unexpected.
