The Internet Resilience Institute Hyperscalers Working Group is advancing an exciting new initiative: a Business Continuity Guide tailored for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Why? Because SMEs often lack the dedicated tech staff or resources to prepare for disruptions. Yet their resilience is critical to the broader digital economy. By drawing on the expertise and hard-earned lessons of hyperscalers (companies that operate at extraordinary scale) we aim to create a practical, adaptable framework that helps organizations of all sizes stay online and connected, even in moments of crisis.

This effort builds directly on insights from our November 2024 workshop which listed engagement with hyperscalers as a priority, and the Post-Global Briefing, which highlighted how resilience at the Internet’s core depends on strong practices across its supply chain. Now, we’re putting that knowledge into action.

Get Involved

• Join the Working Group: Bring your expertise, contribute case studies, or share leads for funding and outreach.
• Join us in Los Angeles: The Internet Resilience Forum (November 14, UCLA Luskin Center) will showcase the Guide’s progress and spark collaboration across sectors.
• Sponsor this work: Support the development of tools that strengthen resilience for SMEs worldwide and position your organization as a leader in this space.

Key Insights from Ram Mohan, Chief Strategy Officer at Identity Digital and Chair of the IR Institute Hyperscalers Work Group.

• Customers expect services to be accessible and reliable regardless of local power or infrastructure issues.
• Resilience is holistic: beyond networks and software, it depends on water for cooling, steady power, and secure backup fuels—interdependent systems that must be planned and tested.
• SMEs shouldn’t just document continuity plans; they must budget for them and run regular “fire drills” to validate what works before real incidents.
• Cross-sector collaboration is critical. Leaders within and beyond tech should share practices, identify gaps, and build the resilient Internet we deserve.

Takeaway for organizations: Make, fund, and test your continuity plan; assume base infrastructure will fail and prepare predetermined responses.

Key Insights from Mimi Tam, Senior Director of Engineering at Ericsson

• At hyperscaler scale, failure is constant. Their edge isn’t just technology—it’s a mindset: design for automated failover and graceful degradation from day one, pair it with extreme redundancy, and build a culture that learns from every incident.
• The biggest blind spot for SMEs: not doing formal dependency mapping. Many don’t know their critical path across internal systems, third-party APIs, and revenue-impacting data flows—leaving them reactive and vulnerable.
• Ransomware and supply chain compromises often exploit these hidden dependencies. Without a map, teams fly blind during outages and struggle to find root causes.

Takeaway: Formally identify single points of failure—ISP, primary database, or even key personnel—and make explicit decisions: accept, mitigate with backups, or redesign to eliminate. This elevates continuity from an IT checklist to a core business strategy.

Meet the Group

We are proud to bring together a diverse group of experts, practitioners, and leaders who are shaping this Guide. Their collaboration embodies what resilience is all about: sharing knowledge, building bridges, and preparing for the unexpected:

About the Internet Resilience Institute

The Marconi Society Internet Resilience Institute advances Internet resilience by convening global experts across technical, industry, and policy domains to identify challenges, foster collaboration, and drive actionable solutions for a secure, reliable, and accessible digital future. Learn more here.