With tax season coming to a close in the United States, IT teams at tax preparation companies and other organizations in the industry will be taking extra care to make sure that their systems can handle a spike in traffic due to a potential last-minute rush of filings.  Tune in to hear The Internet Report hosts discuss how IT teams can navigate major spikes in demand and give customers the best possible digital experience, whether it’s Tax Day, Black Friday, or another high-traffic period. They’ll also unpack recent outages at companies including Apple and WhatsApp, and explore why a sudden reduction in page load times may indicate functional issues rather than true improvements to the customer’s digital experience. ——— CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro01:11 Navigating U.S. Tax Season and Spikes in Demand06:37 Pulse Update: Outage Analysis06:40 Apple Outage: App Store, TV+, and Music13:35 WhatsApp, Other Meta Services Disrupted15:04 Square Outage17:19 Performance as a Cyber Indicator: XZ Utils20:48 Panera Bread Outage22:33 Ray AI Disruption24:13 Outage Trends: By the Numbers27:05 Get in Touch  ——— Want to get in touch? If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes