Drone strikes on data centers spook Big Tech, halting Middle East projects



A data center developer has paused all Middle East project investments after one of its facilities was damaged by an Iranian missile or drone attack. The decision comes as the Iran war is forcing Silicon Valley investors and tech companies to rethink a trillion-dollar plan to build more AI and cloud data centers in Gulf countries.

The damaged data center is owned by Pure Data Centre Group, a London-based company that is operating or developing more than 1 gigawatt of data center capacity across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. “No one’s going to run into a burning building, so to speak,” Pure DC CEO Gary Wojtaszek told CNBC. “No one’s going to put in new additional capital at scale to do anything until everything settles down.”

Data center developers are already eating the costs of uninsurable war damage from the conflict, which began with a US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28. Iran primarily responded by attacking shipping to shut down the Strait of Hormuz trade corridor along with striking US military bases and energy infrastructure across the Gulf region.

Iran also directly struck two Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in the United Arab Emirates, while a near-miss from an Iranian one-way attack drone damaged a third AWS data center in Bahrain. The Iranian attacks caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery, and also triggered fire suppression systems that caused water damage, AWS reported through its service dashboard on March 1.

That led to widespread disruptions in cloud services for AWS customers like banks, payment platforms, the Dubai-based ride-hailing app Careem, and the data cloud provider Snowflake.



Source link

  • Related Posts

    Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for April 30

    Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections:…

    Google Search queries hit an ‘all time high’ last quarter

    “Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business,” Pichai says. “Search had a strong quarter with AI experiences driving usage, queries at an…

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    You Missed

    How to break yellow barriers in Saros

    How to break yellow barriers in Saros

    Texas tornado levels homes and injures five people

    Texas tornado levels homes and injures five people

    Nat Sciver-Brunt: England have underachieved since famous 2017 World Cup win

    Nat Sciver-Brunt: England have underachieved since famous 2017 World Cup win

    18 Madewell New Arrivals That Will Sell Out by May 15

    18 Madewell New Arrivals That Will Sell Out by May 15

    FirstFT: Google pulls ahead as Big Tech AI spending targets surge

    Alberta family grieving relative who died after Brooks hospital discharge

    Alberta family grieving relative who died after Brooks hospital discharge