RapidScale Data Links AI Scaling Challenges and Operational Risk to Cloud Reliability

Organizations with advanced cloud environments are more than four times as likely to experience frequent disruptions as AI becomes increasingly critical to business operations.

RALEIGH, N.C., Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- RapidScale, a leading provider of enterprise managed and professional services for public, private and hybrid cloud environments, today released "AI at Scale: What It Takes to Build an AI-Ready Enterprise." The survey of 368 U.S. tech professionals involved in digital transformation links cloud maturity to the operational risks of disrupted access to AI tools, and identifies how growing reliance on AI raises the stakes for maintaining stable cloud environments.

With 88% of respondents reporting greater reliance on AI tools than a year ago, the impact of a disruption can inflate quickly. Fifty-eight percent with advanced cloud environments expect at least $100,000 in costs from a one-day AI outage.

"AI is embedded and essential to daily business operations, but investment in the infrastructure behind it often lags," said Duane Barnes, chief executive officer at RapidScale. "Even the most advanced cloud operators deal with downtime weekly, which suggests new technology isn't always rolled out in a coordinated way. As businesses expand their use of AI, they need to prioritize reliability alongside new capabilities."

Over half of respondents (51%) experience unplanned cloud downtime or performance issues at least monthly. While occasional disruption is common across complex technology environments, frequent disruption at this scale points to a different operational challenge: maintaining reliability as scale, interconnectedness and technology demands increase. The gap is widest among organizations with "advanced" cloud environments, which are more than four times as likely to experience cloud downtime multiple times per week compared to "established" cloud environments.

Additional key findings from the report include:

• AI Criticality Challenges Business Continuity: 68% of respondents are concerned about maintaining operations during an AI outage, with 34% expecting significant or severe disruption.
• Reliability and compliance remain top challenges: 57% of respondents rank security and compliance as their most difficult cloud management challenge, followed by performance and reliability
• Modernization introduces complexity: 86% experienced challenges following a new technology implementation in the past year, most commonly facing difficulty integrating with existing systems (43%).
• Technology adoption practices are linked to stability: Organizations where teams adopt new technologies outside of a formalized process are more than twice as likely to experience weekly cloud disruption (26% versus 11%).

"Businesses don't need to slow down innovation, but they must introduce coordinated approaches to implementing new technologies," said Jason McKay, chief solutions officer at RapidScale. "That starts with understanding how systems work together, strengthening infrastructure resilience and building reliability into modernization efforts. Planning cloud, IT and AI together, with cause and effect in mind, helps avoid the operational challenges this data reveals."

The full AI at Scale: What It Takes to Build an AI-Ready Enterprise report is available at www.rapidscale.com/ai-at-scale.

About RapidScale:
RapidScale empowers business innovation through secure, scalable cloud solutions, driven by exceptional talent. We deliver managed, professional and advisory services across private, public and hybrid environments, enabling mid-market and enterprise organizations to extend their technology reach, activate change and accelerate growth. Whether hosted, on-premises, or hybrid, our solutions are designed to meet the needs of our clients' business outcomes—not just their infrastructure needs—ensuring each solution is bespoke, unbiased and precisely aligned with client goals.

As an Elite VCSP Partner with Broadcom VMware, AWS Premier Partner, Microsoft Azure Expert MSP, and certified Google Cloud Partner, RapidScale transforms complexity into agility. Our services span the full cloud lifecycle, from strategy to execution, with embedded cyber resiliency and AI-powered data insights that protect today's operations and enable tomorrow's competitive edge.

RapidScale is part of Spectrum Business. Spectrum Business provides a broad commercial solutions portfolio, including advanced cloud, managed IT and fiber-based network solutions that create connected environments, enhance hospitality experiences, and support business applications nationwide.

SOURCE RapidScale