When the lights went out across Portugal, Spain, and parts of France and Belgium, the blackout revealed more than just a power failure — it exposed the vulnerability of centralised, efficiency-optimised systems in a digitally dependent world.

As Africa accelerates its own digital journey, these lessons are worth considering. In regions where mobile money and app-based services are becoming lifelines for business infrastructure, resilience is non-negotiable.

Here are some of our own reflections on what the Iberian blackout can teach us —
✔️ DECENTRALISE – Build localised infrastructure with redundancy to avoid single points of failure.

✔️ DIVERSIFY – Don’t rely on a single channel — validate across GSM, IP, and APIs.

✔️ MONITOR PROACTIVELY – Early issue detection is vital — not just for tech teams, but to protect consumer trust.

✔️ DUPLICATE – Efficiency’s great — until something breaks. Have back-up systems ready.

✔️ DECOUPLE – Align infrastructure with real-world resilience, not just theoretical uptime.

Breakpoint helps organisations prepare for the unexpected. Our monitoring solutions aim for digital business assurance, giving you real-time visibility, end-user journey testing, and predictive analytics to keep your business running — even when the grid may not.

Let’s build for resilience.

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