Ukraine’s drone strikes spur hasty Russian plans for underground data centers
Summary
Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged Russian data centers and disrupted services, prompting Russian companies to consider underground facilities. The Kremlin has ordered operators to reserve computing capacity for state use and now permits a government commission to authorize use of foreign data centers.Key Facts
- Ukrainian strikes damaged or disrupted data centers operated by Yandex, Sberbank, VKontakte and Russia’s Ministry of Finance.
- Yandex relocated its three main supercomputers after strikes targeted the facilities that housed them, Meduza reported.
- Rostelecom discussed moving some data centers underground with mining company Norilsk, according to Vedomosti.
- A Russian regional governor proposed building data centers in open-pit coal mines and disguising the sites with public parks, Data Center Dynamics reported.
- A decree signed by President Donald Trump on November 2 requires Russian data center operators to reserve 10 percent of available space and capacity for possible state needs.
- The decree allows a special government commission, consulting Russia’s Federal Security Service, to authorize the use of foreign data centers.
- Russia’s centralized digital infrastructure has faced disruptions affecting banking, payments, shopping, streaming, ride-hailing and food-delivery services.
- After Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Amazon and Microsoft helped Ukraine move government and other critical digital services to cloud regions elsewhere in Europe; Starlink has also served as backup communications.
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