On December 5, 2025, countless small business owners found themselves staring at error messages when trying to access critical business tools. Zoom meetings wouldn’t connect. LinkedIn profiles were unreachable. Even some banking websites were down. The culprit? A 25-minute outage at Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure company most entrepreneurs have never heard of—but one that powers roughly 20% of all websites.
If you run a small business, this outage serves as a wake-up call about the hidden vulnerabilities in your digital operations.
What Actually Happened?
At approximately 8:47 AM UTC on December 5, Cloudflare experienced significant network failures that lasted about 25 minutes, impacting roughly 28% of the traffic that flows through its systems. The disruption affected major platforms including Zoom, LinkedIn, Shopify, Canva, and several banking websites—tools that small businesses rely on every single day.
The outage stemmed from a change to Cloudflare’s Web Application Firewall while attempting to address a security vulnerability, not from a cyberattack. During those critical minutes, users encountered the dreaded “500 Internal Server Error” message—a technical way of saying the server couldn’t complete their request.
Why This Matters to Your Small Business
You might be thinking, “I’ve never heard of Cloudflare. How does this affect me?” Here’s the reality: even if you don’t knowingly use Cloudflare’s services, many of the tools and platforms your business depends on do.
The Ripple Effect Explained
Think of Cloudflare as the highway system of the internet. They provide essential services like content delivery networks (CDNs), security protection, and domain name systems (DNS) that help websites load quickly and stay protected from attacks. When Cloudflare experiences problems, the effects cascade across numerous unrelated organizations and businesses.
During this outage, businesses couldn’t:
- Host crucial Zoom meetings with clients
- Update LinkedIn profiles or respond to leads
- Process online orders through Shopify stores
- Access design files on Canva
- Complete time-sensitive banking transactions
For a small business operating on tight margins, even 25 minutes of downtime can mean lost sales, missed opportunities, and frustrated customers.
The Growing Problem of “Concentration Risk”
Here’s what makes this situation particularly concerning: this was Cloudflare’s second major outage in less than three weeks. In November 2025, a three-hour Cloudflare outage affected services ranging from ChatGPT to the New Jersey Transit system.
Cybersecurity experts warn that organizations are increasingly putting “more eggs in fewer baskets” as services consolidate under major providers like Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. When one of these providers fails, it doesn’t just affect a single website—it can disrupt entire sectors of the economy simultaneously.
Richard Ford, chief technology officer at cybersecurity firm Integrity360, notes that what feels like one outage to a user is actually a systemic failure affecting traffic flows across many unrelated organizations.
What Small Businesses Can Do
While you can’t control whether Cloudflare or similar providers experience outages, you can take steps to minimize the impact on your business:
1. Diversify Your Critical Tools
Don’t rely solely on one platform for essential business functions. For example:
- Use multiple communication channels beyond just Zoom (Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, phone)
- Maintain email lists separate from LinkedIn for lead generation
- Have backup payment processing options if your primary system uses cloud infrastructure
2. Build Offline Backup Plans
Create contingency plans for when your cloud-based tools go down:
- Keep local copies of important files and documents
- Maintain phone numbers for key clients and vendors
- Have old-fashioned printed materials for crucial information
- Establish alternative ways for customers to reach you
3. Communicate Proactively
When outages affect your ability to serve customers:
- Use multiple channels (social media, email, phone) to inform clients
- Set up status pages or automated messages explaining service disruptions
- Follow up quickly once services are restored
4. Monitor Service Status
Many major platforms maintain public status pages. Bookmark these for the critical services you use:
- Check if your website host uses Cloudflare or similar services
- Subscribe to status updates from essential business platforms
- Use tools like Down Detector to quickly verify whether issues are widespread
5. Review Your Service Level Agreements
Understand what guarantees your service providers actually make about uptime. Many free or low-cost tools offer no compensation for downtime. For mission-critical services, consider:
- Whether business-tier plans offer better reliability
- What (if any) service credits you receive during outages
- Whether enterprise alternatives provide redundancy options
The Bigger Picture
These recent outages highlight a fundamental truth about modern business: we’re all more dependent on internet infrastructure than we realize. The frequency of such incidents appears to be increasing as the complexity and scale of operations at major providers like AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Cloudflare continue to grow.
For small businesses, this means two things:
First, you need to accept that occasional service disruptions are now part of doing business. Just as you’d prepare for a power outage or severe weather, you need contingency plans for internet infrastructure failures.
Second, when evaluating new business tools and services, factor in reliability and redundancy. The cheapest option isn’t always the best if it leaves your business vulnerable when things go wrong.
Moving Forward
The December 5 Cloudflare outage was relatively brief—just 25 minutes. But it demonstrated how quickly digital operations can grind to a halt. As a small business owner, you can’t prevent these outages, but you can prepare for them.
Start by identifying your most critical digital tools and asking yourself: “What happens to my business if this goes down for an hour? A day?” Then create practical backup plans that don’t require a large budget or technical expertise.
The internet has created incredible opportunities for small businesses, but it’s also created new vulnerabilities. By understanding these risks and planning accordingly, you can ensure that the next infrastructure outage is an inconvenience rather than a crisis.
About This Incident: Cloudflare reported that approximately 28% of their HTTP traffic was affected during this 25-minute outage. The company has stated it is implementing enhanced rollout procedures and safety measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
What to Do Now: Take 15 minutes this week to create a simple “Digital Downtime Plan” for your business. List your essential online tools and identify at least one alternative for each. Your future self will thank you when the next outage hits.
