Putin orders Russian data centers to reserve 10% capacity for state use

Owners of non-state data centers in Russia must hold back 10% of capacity for possible state use, President Vladimir Putin said, according to Reuters. The move aims to unlock additional data center compute capacity for state IT infrastructure if needed, with third-party owners required to comply within 24 hours of an order. It follows recent Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian data centers that damaged facilities and affected state-owned internet services.

Attacks on Russian data centers

In early October, drones struck Russia's largest data center in what was described as the second such attack in as many days. The 63-megawatt facility was so badly damaged that multiple modules had to be removed from service completely. Users reported problems with Yandex Mail, Disk, Documents, Pay, and Market, although Yandex said key services remained up and running. Two weeks later, Russia's finance ministry data center was damaged after Ukrainian drones targeted the facility, which was reportedly home to Russia's tax databases and other state registry data.

Inventory and release process

Putin told the Digital Development Ministry to inventory all available data center capacity and floor space at privately owned facilities throughout the country. A new government commission will have the power to order the release of reserved data center capacity. Once ordered, third-party data center owners will have 24 hours to comply. The temporary use of data centers located outside Russia has also been mooted, pending approval by Russia's Federal Security Service.

Cyberattack and Ukraine strikes

On the same day that news broke of the plan to siphon data center capacity from third parties, the Russian Federal State Statistics Service admitted that its servers were hit by cyberattacks that saw 23TB of data stolen. The haul reportedly includes new data on Russian wartime losses marked for official use only. Data centers have also been a target for Russia: it bombed Ukrainian facilities in September, resulting in the loss of internet connectivity for 100,000 households. A government official noted that Ukraine's internet network is highly decentralized, while also saying users should expect local disruptions to service.

Sources: Tom's Hardware