Rostelcom explores underground data centers after Ukrainian drone strikes
Russian officials are moving critical servers into mines and bunkers to protect cloud infrastructure from aerial attacks.
By Dylan Moore ·
State-owned telecommunications company Rostelcom is in talks with the mining firm Norilsk about relocating data centers underground. This move follows recent Ukrainian drone strikes that damaged Russian facilities and disrupted cloud services for millions of users.
The urgency for these changes began in late September when Ukraine started targeting Russian data centers. Ukrainian drones have since struck or degraded infrastructure operated by Yandex, the state-owned bank Sberbank, the social media platform VKontakte, and the Ministry of Finance. These attacks have forced Russian tech companies to harden their physical assets.
Beyond Rostelcom, a Russian regional governor proposed building data centers inside open-pit coal mines. The plan involves planting green public parks on the surface to provide camouflage for the underground facilities.
On November 2, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree regarding emergency capacity. The order requires Russian data center operators to reserve 10 percent of their available space and computing power for potential state use. The Kremlin has also authorized the possible use of foreign data centers if domestic options fail.
These measures come as the Russian military continues to bombard Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles. The conflict has now extended to digital infrastructure, prompting Russian leaders to seek protective measures for their cloud computing networks.
Source: Ars Technica
