Critical infrastructure

NVIDIA pushes forward with AI-ready data

Enterprises are facing growing pressure to prepare unstructured data for use in modern AI systems as organisations struggle to turn prototypes into production tools.

Around forty percent of AI projects advance beyond the pilot phase, largely due to limits in data quality and availability. Most organisational information now comes in unstructured form, ranging from emails to video files, which offers little coherence and places a heavy load on governance systems.

AI agents need secure, recent and reliable data instead of fragmented information scattered across multiple storage silos. Preparing such data demands extensive curation, metadata work, semantic chunking and the creation of vector embeddings.

Enterprises also struggle with the rising speed of data creation and the spread of duplicate copies, which increases both operational cost and security concerns.

An emerging approach by NVIDIA, known as the AI data platform, aims to address these challenges by embedding GPU acceleration directly into the data path. The platform prepares and indexes information in place, allowing enterprises to reduce data drift, strengthen governance and avoid unnecessary replication.

Any change to a source document is immediately reflected in the associated AI representations, improving accuracy and consistency for business applications.

NVIDIA is positioning its own AI Data Platform reference design as a next step for enterprise storage. The design combines RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, BlueField three DPUs and integrated AI processing pipelines.

Leading technology providers including Cisco, Dell Technologies, IBM, HPE, NetApp, Pure Storage and others have adopted the model as they prepare storage systems for broader use of generative AI in the enterprise sector.

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Web services recover after Cloudflare restores its network systems

Cloudflare has resolved a technical issue that briefly disrupted access to major platforms, including X, ChatGPT, and Letterboxd. Users had earlier reported internal server error messages linked to Cloudflare’s network, indicating that pages could not be displayed.

The disruption began around midday UK time, with some sites loading intermittently as the problem spread across the company’s infrastructure. Cloudflare confirmed it was investigating an incident affecting multiple customers and issued rolling updates as engineers worked to identify the fault.

Outage tracker Down Detector also experienced difficulties during the incident, later showing a sharp rise in reports once it came back online. The pattern pointed to a broad network-level failure rather than isolated platform issues.

Users saw repeated internal server error warnings asking them to try again, though services began recovering as Cloudflare isolated the cause. The company has not yet released full technical details, but said the fault has been fixed and that systems are stabilising.

Cloudflare provides routing, security, and reliability tools for a wide range of online services, making a single malfunction capable of cascading globally. The company said it would share further information on the incident and steps taken to prevent similar failures.

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Misconfigured database triggered global Cloudflare failure, CEO says

Cloudflare says its global outage on 18 November was caused by an internal configuration error, not a cyberattack. CEO Matthew Prince apologised to users after a permissions update to a ClickHouse cluster generated a malformed feature file that caused systems worldwide to crash.

The oversized file exceeded a hard limit in Cloudflare’s routing software, triggering failures across its global edge. Intermittent recoveries during the first hours of the incident led engineers to suspect a possible attack, as the network randomly stabilised when a non-faulty file propagated.

Confusion intensified when Cloudflare’s externally hosted status page briefly became inaccessible, raising fears of coordinated targeting. The root cause was later traced to metadata duplication from an unexpected database source, which doubled the number of machine-learning features in the file.

The outage affected Cloudflare’s CDN, security layers, and ancillary services, including Turnstile, Workers KV, and Access. Some legacy proxies kept limited traffic moving, but bot scores and authentication systems malfunctioned, causing elevated latencies and blocked requests.

Engineers halted the propagation of the faulty file by mid-afternoon and restored a clean version before restarting affected systems. Prince called it Cloudflare’s most serious failure since 2019 and said lessons learned will guide major improvements to the company’s infrastructure resilience.

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Google enters a new frontier with Gemini 3

A new phase of its AI strategy has begun for Google with the release of Gemini 3, which arrives as the company’s most advanced model to date.

The new system prioritises deeper reasoning and more subtle multimodal understanding, enabling users to approach difficult ideas with greater clarity instead of relying on repetitive prompting. It marks a major step for Google’s long-term project to integrate stronger intelligence into products used by billions.

Gemini 3 Pro is already available in preview across the Gemini app, AI Mode in Search, AI Studio, Vertex AI and Google’s new development platform known as Antigravity.

A model that performs at the top of major benchmarks in reasoning, mathematics, tool use and multimodal comprehension, offering substantial improvements compared with Gemini 2.5 Pro.

Deep Think mode extends the model’s capabilities even further, reaching new records on demanding academic and AGI-oriented tests, although Google is delaying wider release until additional safety checks conclude.

Users can rely on Gemini 3 to learn complex topics, analyse handwritten material, decode long academic texts or translate lengthy videos into interactive guides instead of navigating separate tools.

Developers benefit from richer interactive interfaces, more autonomous coding agents and the ability to plan tasks over longer horizons.

Google Antigravity enhances this shift by giving agents direct control of the development environment, allowing them to plan, write and validate code independently while remaining under human supervision.

Google emphasises that Gemini 3 is its most extensively evaluated model, supported by independent audits and strengthened protections against manipulation. The system forms the foundation for Google’s next era of agentic, personalised AI and will soon expand with additional models in the Gemini 3 series.

The company expects the new generation to reshape how people learn, build and organise daily tasks instead of depending on fragmented digital services.

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Cloudflare outage disrupts leading crypto platforms

Cloudflare experienced a significant network outage on Tuesday, which disrupted access to major cryptocurrency platforms, including Coinbase, Kraken, Etherscan, and several DeFi services, resulting in widespread ‘500 Internal Server Error’ messages.

The company acknowledged the issue as an internal service degradation across parts of its global network and began rolling out a fix. However, users continued to face elevated error rates during the process.

Major Bitcoin and Ethereum platforms, as well as Aave, DeFiLlama, and several blockchain explorers, were impacted. The disruption spread beyond crypto, affecting several major Web2 platforms, while services like BlueSky and Reddit stayed fully operational.

Cloudflare shares dropped 3.5% in pre-market trading as the company investigated whether scheduled maintenance at specific data centres played any role.

The incident marks the third significant Cloudflare disruption affecting crypto platforms since 2019, highlighting the industry’s ongoing reliance on centralised infrastructure providers despite its focus on decentralisation.

Industry experts pointed to recent outages from Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services as evidence that critical digital services cannot rely solely on a single vendor for reliability. Kraken restored access ahead of many peers, while Cloudflare stated that the issue was resolved and would continue to monitor for full stability.

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AI energy demand strains electrical grids

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently delivered a key insight, stating that the biggest hurdle to deploying new AI solutions is now electrical power, not chip supply. The massive energy requirements for running large language models (LLMs) have created a critical bottleneck for major cloud providers.

Nadella specified that Microsoft currently has a ‘bunch of chips sitting in inventory’ that cannot be plugged in and utilised. The problem is a lack of ‘warm shells’, meaning data centre buildings that are fully equipped with the necessary power and cooling capacity.

The escalating power requirements of AI infrastructure are placing extreme pressure on utility grids and capacity. Projections from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory indicate that US data centres could consume up to 12 percent of the nation’s total electricity by 2028.

The disclosure should serve as a warning to investors, urging them to evaluate the infrastructure challenges alongside AI’s technological promise. This energy limitation could create a temporary drag on the sector, potentially slowing the massive projected returns on the $5 trillion investment.

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CelcomDigi convergence project earns ZTE top 5G service honour

ZTE has won the Best Mobile/5G Service Innovation award at the 2025 Global Connectivity Awards for its work on Malaysia’s CelcomDigi dual-network convergence. The project integrates network assets across four regions and six operators, marking the largest deployment of its kind in the country.

The company introduced an intelligent, integrated, and connected management model built on big-data platforms for site deployment, optimisation, and value analysis. Eight smart tools support planning, commissioning, and operations, enabling end-to-end oversight of project delivery and performance.

Phase-one results show a 15 percent rise in coverage, 25 percent faster downloads, higher traffic, and a more than 60 percent reduction in complaints. ZTE also deployed AI-based energy-saving systems to reduce emissions and advance sustainability goals across the network.

The project incorporates talent-building measures by prioritising localisation and working with Malaysian universities. ZTE says this approach supports long-term sector resilience alongside near-term performance gains.

CAPACITY’s Global Connectivity Awards, held in Malaysia, evaluate innovation, execution, and industry impact. ZTE states that it will continue to develop new project management models and partner globally to build more efficient, intelligent, and sustainable communications networks.

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ALX and Anthropic partner with Rwanda on AI education

A landmark partnership between ALX, Anthropic, and the Government of Rwanda has launched a major AI learning initiative across Africa.

The program introduces ‘Chidi’, an AI-powered learning companion built on Anthropic’s Claude model. Instead of providing direct answers, the system is designed to guide learners through critical thinking and problem-solving, positioning African talent at the centre of global tech innovation.

An initiative, described as one of the largest AI-enhanced education deployments on the continent, that will see Chidi integrated into Rwanda’s public education system. A pilot phase will involve up to 2,000 educators and select civil servants.

According to the partners, the collaboration aims to ensure Africa’s youth become creators of AI technology instead of remaining merely consumers of it.

A three-way collaboration that unites ALX’s training infrastructure, Anthropic’s AI technology, and Rwanda’s progressive digital policy. The working group, the researchers noted, will document insights to inform Rwanda’s national AI policy.

The initiative sets a new standard for inclusive, AI-powered learning, with Rwanda serving as a launch hub for future deployments across the continent.

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Outage at Cloudflare takes multiple websites offline worldwide

Cloudflare has suffered a major outage, disrupting access to multiple high-profile websites, including X and Letterboxd. Users encountered internal server error messages linked to Cloudflare’s network, prompting concerns of a broader infrastructure failure.

The problems began around 11.30 a.m. UK time, with some sites briefly loading after refreshes. Cloudflare issued an update minutes later, confirming that it was aware of an incident affecting multiple customers but did not identify a cause or timeline for resolution.

Outage tracker Down Detector was also intermittently unavailable, later showing a sharp rise in reports once restored. Affected sites displayed repeated error messages advising users to try again later, indicating partial service degradation rather than full shutdowns.

Cloudflare provides core internet infrastructure, including traffic routing and cyberattack protection, which means failures can cascade across unrelated services. Similar disruption followed an AWS incident last month, highlighting the systemic risk of centralised web infrastructure.

The company states that it is continuing to investigate the issue. No mitigation steps or source of failure have yet been disclosed, and Cloudflare has warned that further updates will follow once more information becomes available.

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Eurofiber France confirms the major data breach

The French telecommunications company Eurofiber has acknowledged a breach of its ATE customer platform and digital ticket system after a hacker accessed the network through software used by the company.

Engineers detected the intrusion quickly and implemented containment measures, while the company stressed that services remained operational and banking data stayed secure. The incident affected only French operations and subsidiaries such as Netiwan, Eurafibre, Avelia, and FullSave, according to the firm.

Security researchers instead argue that the scale is far broader. International Cyber Digest reported that more than 3,600 organisations may be affected, including prominent French institutions such as Orange, Thales, the national rail operator, and major energy companies.

The outlet linked the intrusion to the ransomware group ByteToBreach, which allegedly stole Eurofiber’s entire GLPI database and accessed API keys, internal messages, passwords and client records.

A known dark web actor has now listed the stolen dataset for sale, reinforcing concerns about the growing trade in exposed corporate information. The contents reportedly range from files and personal data to cloud configurations and privileged credentials.

Eurofiber did not clarify which elements belonged to its systems and which originated from external sources.

The company has notified the French privacy regulator CNIL and continues to investigate while assuring Dutch customers that their data remains safe.

A breach that underlines the vulnerability of essential infrastructure providers across Europe, echoing recent incidents in Sweden, where a compromised IT supplier exposed data belonging to over a million people.

Eurofiber says it aims to strengthen its defences instead of allowing similar compromises in future.

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