The outage that halted CME Group operations for nearly 10 hours on November 28, 2025, was a wake-up call for the financial world. As someone deeply immersed in the startup sphere, I can tell you that crises like these highlight the imperative of anticipating risks, especially in data-driven industries. Whether you're running a trading platform or scaling your own tech-powered business, this was a clear example of how overreliance on singular systems can disrupt operations, revenue streams, and, ultimately, trust. Let's unpack the lessons entrepreneurs and businesses can extract from what unfolded.
What Exactly Happened?
One of the world's largest derivatives operators, CME Group, hit a substantial roadblock when the cooling systems at their Chicago-based data center, operated by CyrusOne, failed. This wasn't a minor inconvenience, futures and options trading for markets like commodities, equities, and currencies came to a screeching halt. Operations eventually resumed later that day, but the incident still left a scar.
To bring in some perspective: CME Group processes millions of contracts daily, and disruptions like this directly impact global financial markets. Preliminary estimates clocked the outage at affecting trading worth tens of billions across various asset types. While the data center cited equipment failure, the extent and timing of the incident have sparked a flurry of conversations about resilience and preparedness.
What Can Entrepreneurs Learn?
When events like these occur, they provide more than just headlines. They illuminate vulnerabilities and offer content worth dissecting to future-proof our businesses. Here are the top lessons every entrepreneur, startup founder, or small business owner can take from the CME Group's outage:
1. Redundancy in Infrastructure is Not a “Nice-to-Have”
CME's reliance on a single data center vendor shows the downside of cutting corners on failover systems. Have a fallback mechanism when your primary system experiences issues. For startups, this could mean adopting multiple cloud providers or using hybrid storage systems. Yes, costs may increase, but so will your ability to handle unexpected setbacks. For instance, how companies utilize multiple cloud vendors effectively offers significant insight.
2. Foster Transparency with Third-Party Providers
While leveraging external partnerships can boost scalability, you must remain aware of potential pain points. Vet your vendors carefully. Ask these critical questions: Do they have sufficient backup systems? Do they conduct regular risk assessments?
3. Test Contingency Plans Regularly
Don’t wait for failures to assess your systems. Regularly conduct mock failure simulations to identify potential bottlenecks. For example, Google employs “disaster days,” forcing both staff and systems to respond to hypothetical emergencies. That’s a practice worth considering for startups with mission-critical tech.
4. Integrate Real-Time Monitoring Tools
Use real-time monitoring to detect system irregularities before they escalate. Cloud platforms typically offer detailed performance monitoring options. If you're interested in this process, consider how monitoring tools impact system reliability.
5. Communicate Clearly During Crises
CME’s communication strategy shone during its outage. They worked with CyrusOne to issue clear updates to clients regularly. Whether your business is dealing with a delayed product shipment, a glitch in your SaaS platform, or an overload of customer requests, focus on clear, continuous updates, this ensures trust remains intact.
Common Mistakes to Watch Out For
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Lack of Crisis Preparedness: It's easy to defer building robust backup systems in favor of short-term wins, but as this incident showed, it might cost much more in the long term.
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Underestimating Vendor Dependencies: Handing off operations to a trusted partner might feel like offloading a burden, but you are still accountable for what happens in their ecosystem.
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Not Prioritizing the Right Metrics: Many companies focus on growth metrics but overlook operational risk metrics. Include downtime and recovery metrics in your reporting.
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Poor Customer Communication During Disruptions: Silence kills businesses during a crisis. Establish a communication playbook beforehand. Your audience will forgive downtime but not the absence of information.
A Quick Strategy to Protect Your Tech-Driven Business
Here’s how to make your startup, tech-driven business, or even freelance consultancy more resilient in today’s complex environment:
- Audit Your Dependencies: Create a list of all external services you're using, cloud providers, payment platforms, or communication tools.
- Establish Failover Protocols: Have a pre-approved plan for when things go south. This includes alternative workflows or backup providers.
- Communicate Expectations: Align with service vendors to establish protocols. Have SLAs outlining response times and disaster recovery capabilities in black and white.
- Diversify: Spread your risk over multiple service providers where feasible. Having an alternate option tied into your workflow can reduce downtime drastically.
- Train Your Team: Reaction times during a crisis are key. Ensure every team member has a clear role during operational emergencies.
Why This Should Matter to You
I often tell founders I work with, "You don't scale by luck; you scale with systems." CME's glitch illustrates the extent of damage a single point of failure can inflict. It's not about being a financial giant, it's about having a high-risk tolerance and low-risk adaptability.
While as entrepreneurs we may not operate billion-dollar mechanics like CME’s, our reliance on tech means we still share similar risks in scaling. Whether you’re using an app for client management, e-commerce, or automating contracts, the shockwaves carry lessons for everyone in business.
Conclusion
This outage underscores something crucial: Your infrastructure may not always be under your control, but its failures will always be your responsibility. Entrepreneurs, especially those scaling disruptive companies, should view their ecosystems holistically. From identifying third-party risks to refining communication strategies during a breakdown, the steps you take today will dictate how you weather tomorrow's storms.
For those in the world of startups, this event isn't just a cautionary tale for behemoth organizations like the CME Group. These moments remind us to pause, strategize, and bake resilience into our business models. After all, isn’t foresight the hallmark of success?
FAQ
1. What happened to CME Group's operations on November 28, 2025?
CME Group's operations were halted due to a cooling system failure at a CyrusOne data center in Chicago. This disrupted futures and options trading across various markets for nearly 10 hours. Learn more about CME's outage from Finextra
2. Which markets were affected by the CME outage?
The outage impacted trading in stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, and futures tied to indices such as the S&P 500. Explore affected markets on Finextra
3. What was the root cause of the CME outage?
The root cause was a cooling issue at a CyrusOne CHI1 data center that took multiple cooling units offline, disrupting CME's Globex electronic trading platform. Check out CyrusOne's explanation
4. How long did the CME outage last?
Operations were disrupted for approximately 10 hours before being restored gradually by around 13:00 GMT. Find details on Finextra
5. What lessons can entrepreneurs learn from the CME outage?
Entrepreneurs can learn the importance of redundancy in infrastructure, regular testing of contingency plans, fostering transparency with vendors, and having clear communication strategies during crises. Discover these strategies
6. Why is redundancy in infrastructure critical for tech-driven businesses?
Reliance on a single system or provider can lead to significant operational disruptions, as demonstrated by the CME outage. Learn more
7. What was CME’s communication strategy during the outage?
CME Group worked closely with CyrusOne to issue regular updates to clients, ensuring transparency and trust during the disruption. Explore how CME handled communication
8. How can startups prevent similar disruptions?
Startups can mitigate risks by auditing dependencies, diversifying service providers, and maintaining robust failover protocols. Learn about these preventive measures
9. How did the outage impact CME Group financially?
Despite the disruption, CME Group's shares showed minimal immediate impact, signaling resilience in investor confidence. Find more analysis here
10. What regulatory implications might arise from the CME outage?
Events like these could draw attention from regulators regarding the stability of financial markets and highlight the need for robust and resilient infrastructure. Learn more about infrastructure risks
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.
