Russia proposes putting data centres underground to protect them from Ukrainian drones

Russia’s Digital Development Ministry has approved recommendations urging data centre operators to build facilities underground, camouflage them from the air and equip them with anti-drone defences, business daily Kommersant reported on Sunday.

The guidelines apply to existing, under-construction and planned data centres. They sort facilities into three categories based on importance: strategic sites necessary for government systems to work; facilities that support systems important to regional economies or to specific industries; and corporate data centres.

To protect the infrastructure, the recommendations call for underground placement, engineered barriers, anti-drone netting and electronic warfare systems. Buildings should also be protected against blast waves and shrapnel, and critical data and services should be backed up with redundant systems, according to Kommersant.

Companies that run data centres are also advised to coordinate with Russia’s Defense Ministry, Emergency Situations Ministry and National Guard.

Experts told Kommersant that the added security measures could raise data centre service prices by roughly 10%.

The recommendations were approved by an industry task force set up under the ministry. The ministry announced the task force, which is meant to protect communications infrastructure, after Ukrainian drones attacked five data centres belonging to Yandex, Sber and VK in several regions of Russia in recent weeks.