On October 20, 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS)—a cloud computing platform operated by Amazon that features storage, analytics, and high-performance virtual servers—experienced a glitch that resulted in a system-wide outage lasting for over 15 hours. During that time, AWS clients were unable to access any of the platform’s functionality, so many businesses (including many restaurants) found themselves at a stand-still.
In a commerce climate that relies more and more on digital infrastructure models, how can a restaurant protect their operations (and their customers’ privacy) during the next major cloud outage? To gain some insight on this subject, we turned to an expert in the field: Niko Papademetriou, co-founder and EVP of Qu, a company that develops unified commerce platforms (which combine data, retail systems, and sales figures to create a fully integrated experience for customers and restaurants). Qu’s restaurant clients include major national chains like Jack In The Box, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and Taco John’s.
To navigate a cloud outage with ease, don’t let your restaurant become “cloud-dependent.”
Papademetriou fully acknowledges the importance of cloud platforms in today’s restaurant landscape. “The cloud plays an important role in scaling, synchronizing data across thousands of locations, and supporting real-time visibility for operators," he says. "It allows brands to push menu updates instantly, manage loyalty programs across every channel, and maintain consistent configurations systemwide. The cloud is a powerful tool when it comes to version control, security, and enterprise-wide reporting."
That said, Papademetriou also points out that “recent global cloud outages showed how quickly restaurant operations can grind to a halt when systems rely entirely on cloud availability.”
Using the AWS outage as an example, Papademetriou breaks down a few points of vulnerability caused by leaning too heavily on a major cloud platform. First and foremost, “cloud dependency introduces a single point of failure. When a cloud provider experiences an outage, or when a store’s internet connection drops, critical functions like ordering, payments, and kitchen routing can stop immediately.”
Papademetriou doesn’t view the cloud as unreliable or not useful in general, but when companies allow themselves to become cloud-centric, they’re unable to “protect against the day-to-day reality of restaurants, where small Internet and Wi-Fi hiccups, and local connectivity issues, happen far more often than global outages. A resilient system has to account for those everyday problems, not only the catastrophic ones.”
Instead, aim for a “cloud-deployed” business model.
Papademetriou says the key is to maximize the strengths of a cloud platform without falling victim to a cloud-dependent business model. He says, “Qu preserves the advantages of the cloud while protecting restaurants from the risks that come with full cloud dependency. The result is an architecture built for resiliency at the store level, so operators can keep taking orders, processing payments, and serving guests even when the wider internet or cloud services fail.”
How does Qu accomplish this task? By creating an infrastructural backup plan with the help of AI. Qu Business Edge (AKA “Qube”) basically acts as a local system that keeps every essential function running even when the cloud or internet connection fails. Qube becomes an “in-store cloud” for each individual restaurant client.
Platforms like Qube give restaurants the chance to keep fundamental business elements like order systems (POS, drive-thru, and kiosk), menus, and workflows running within each restaurant location even without cloud access. “Transactions queue safely on the edge device (while still backing up to each POS), then sync automatically once connectivity returns," says Papademetriou.
Papademetriou also emphasizes the importance of redundancy, or providing numerous paths for data traffic so that no single connection can bring down the whole operation. “Do not accept services with a single point of failure. Your system should have local failover, not only cloud failover,” he says.
Building a path that lets data be stored locally rather than solely in the cloud was, in Papademetriou’s view, a major factor that kept clients like Jack in the Box and Golden Corral fully functional during the October outages. Papademetriou said thanks to this safeguarding, “Transactions were encrypted, stored locally, and safely synced later. Guests could complete orders and staff could maintain workflow without interruption.”
Constant monitoring is also essential for a resilient cloud-deployed system. “We monitor every layer of the platform, including edge devices, cloud regions, and network health," says Papademetriou. "Alerts trigger immediate investigation and automated rerouting when necessary. Our North Star is simple: A restaurant should be able to operate even if the internet goes down and the cloud is unavailable."
Take steps to shore up your cloud-related systems before an outage takes you by surprise.
Cloud outages like the Amazon Web Services example are an inevitability; they’ve happened before, and they will certainly happen again. These outages make the difference between cloud-deployed platforms and cloud-dependent platforms crystal clear.
“Cloud-deployed platforms use the cloud for deployment and synchronization, speed and scale, but they do not stop working when connectivity fails. Cloud-dependent platforms require continuous access to the cloud in order to fully function, creating an unacceptable level of risk for restaurants where uptime is essential,” says Papademetriou.
Put yourself in an advantageous position during the next cloud crash by remembering Papademetriou's wise advice: “Restaurants cannot choose when the next outage will happen, but they can choose whether it disrupts their operations. The brands that stayed operational during the October outages were not lucky; they were prepared.”
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