Data centers have become targets of strikes in several conflicts; Putin said Russia has "started to respond", including against data centers
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
SI and the cloud live in physical buildings, and now those buildings are being damaged in wars: companies and governments are rethinking where and how to build data centers.
According to TIME, in March Iran struck two Amazon facilities in the UAE, and a facility in Bahrain was damaged by debris from a strike nearby; Amazon said on September 15 that it had been unable to restore access to resources and data in two regions. Russia's Defense Ministry, TIME writes, explained its strikes on Ukrainian data centers in late September by saying they "process and transmit intelligence data for Ukraine's Armed Forces"; Ukraine's strikes in response on three Yandex data centers began on October 8, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as quoted by TIME, said: "We always respond in kind." By 404 Media's count, this is the fourth strike on Russian data centers in a week; the latest hit a Sberbank center. At the Business Russia forum, Vladimir Putin said, as reported by RIA Novosti: "They took the first step, we have started to respond now, and on energy... and on military facilities, including on data centers and so on." The experts the outlets quote differ in emphasis: Kirk Cameron of Virginia Tech calls data centers "on the critical path" of digital infrastructure, while an international-law specialist in the 404 Media piece argues that retaliation alone is not enough to make a facility a lawful target and points to disruption of civilian services.
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