- March 7, 2026
- 10:13 pm
- World News
A new phase of modern conflict has begun — a struggle not only for territories but also for servers, clouds, and data transmission channels. Strikes on data centers in the Middle East have shown: digital infrastructure has finally become part of the battlefield.
If data centers were previously considered civilian infrastructure, today they are increasingly viewed as elements of a strategic war management system. This means they are potential targets.
In early March, the world received several signals that this logic is already working in practice.
Strikes on data centers: a new stage in the technology war
On March 4, Iran used drones to attack an Amazon data center in Bahrain. The official explanation was straightforward: Tehran wanted to “determine the role of these centers in supporting enemy military and intelligence operations.”
The response was swift. The very next day, the US and Israel struck at least two data centers in Tehran. This was reported by representatives of the non-governmental organization Holistic Resilience.
But the chain of events began even earlier.
On March 1, an Amazon Web Services unit was forced to report a temporary loss of power supply at a data center in Dubai. The cause was shelling and the subsequent fire.
A few days — and immediately three incidents around cloud infrastructure.
For the technology industry, this was an alarming signal.
For Ukraine, it was confirmation of what the country has been saying for several years.
Why data centers are becoming strategic targets
Modern warfare is built around data.
Drones, satellites, intelligence systems, strike management systems — all depend on the speed of information processing.
If you compare digital infrastructure to the human body, the logic becomes obvious:
satellites and sensors are the “eyes” of the army
communication systems are its “nervous system”
data centers are its “brain”
It is there that intelligence data is analyzed, commands are formed, and operations are coordinated.
Therefore, an attack on a data center can be as effective as a strike on a military headquarters.
Blinding the enemy means depriving them of the ability to make decisions.
In such conditions, data centers automatically become legitimate targets for states engaged in technological warfare.
What will change in the global system of digital infrastructure protection
After the events in the Middle East, experts expect a serious revision of security standards for data centers.
In fact, the requirements may approach those applied to military facilities.
We are talking about several key changes.
Secrecy of infrastructure location
The exact coordinates of many data centers may cease to be public information.
The less a potential adversary knows about the location of server sites, the harder it is to deliver a precise strike on them.
New standards of physical protection
Old recommendations, such as the prohibition of placing server rooms in basements due to the risk of flooding, now seem outdated.
The main threat is no longer water, but missiles and drones.
This means:
reinforced building structures
distributed server sites
protected energy systems
autonomous communication lines
Diversification of data storage
Companies will increasingly distribute data across multiple geographic locations.
Even a direct hit on one data center should not lead to service outages.
Precedents have already appeared.
Damage to Amazon Web Services infrastructure in March caused disruptions in the operation of several services in the UAE. Popular applications were affected — including the Careem delivery and ride service and the Alaan payment platform.
This incident showed that dependence on a single infrastructure can have real economic consequences.
According to the IDC analytical center, cloud providers in the Middle East are already preparing to store data replicas in separate data centers.
Other regions are also beginning to strengthen protection.
For example, the Chinese company Tencent places part of its critically important infrastructure in caves in the mountainous province of Guizhou — natural formations provide additional protection from strikes.
And this is just the beginning.
Ukrainian experience of digital resilience
For Ukraine, what is happening in the Middle East looks familiar.
The country has been living in conditions of hybrid warfare for several years, where infrastructure strikes, cyberattacks, and drone attacks have become part of everyday life.
This experience is gradually turning into a strategic advantage.
Against the backdrop of the conflict around Iran, the Pentagon has already shown interest in Ukrainian developments — in particular, in interceptor drones designed to destroy Iranian drones of the “Shahed” type.
The economic logic here is obvious.
The cost of one such drone is estimated at about 30 thousand dollars.
A PAC-3 missile, which can shoot it down, costs about 1.3 million dollars.
The difference is almost forty times.
Therefore, interest in Ukrainian technologies is explained not only by their effectiveness but also by the economics of modern warfare.
However, the main lesson from Ukraine is not only related to weapons.
It is related to data architecture.
In the middle of the article, NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency notes that the key problem of digital security today is dependence on a single infrastructure provider.
Even if it is a technological giant of Amazon’s scale.
Ukrainian Digital Sovereignty Alliance
Ukrainian cloud providers began changing their approach even before the escalation in the Middle East.
In the spring of 2025, the largest market players took a step from competition to cooperation and created the Ukrainian Digital Sovereignty Alliance.
The main idea is to ensure infrastructure resilience by distributing data among multiple providers.
This means that critically important systems will not depend on a single data center.
Even if one of the providers comes under attack, the infrastructure will continue to operate.
This approach is called cloud interoperability.
In fact, it is a collective digital protection system.
Similar models are already actively discussed in Europe.
The topic of digital sovereignty is becoming one of the key trends in EU digital policy.
Ukrainian companies are already in dialogue with European structures — including the European Commissioner for Digital Affairs Henna Virkkunen — about joint data protection standards.
Why Israel and the US should also participate in this dialogue
The events of recent weeks show: data centers are becoming part of the global security system.
This means that the protection of digital infrastructure requires international coordination.
The US, Israel, EU countries, and Ukraine are actually facing the same threats:
drone attacks
cyberattacks
strikes on energy infrastructure
attempts to disable communication and data processing systems
Without joint protection standards and infrastructure distribution, risks will only grow.
Today it is already clear: data centers are no longer exclusively commercial objects.
They are becoming part of the strategic security architecture.
This means that the dialogue on data protection should reach the level of global policy.
And Ukraine — a country experiencing digital war in real-time — can play a key role in this process.