"Russian version of Google" data center attacked and caught fire, Russian companies were frightened and wanted to leave

Russian technology and artificial intelligence (AI) giant Yandex confirmed on Thursday (8th) that its large data center in Sasovo was attacked by a drone and caused a fire, forcing it to suspend operations. Russian media revealed that many Russian companies have begun discussions with Moscow and plan to transfer data centers to countries friendly to Russia to reduce the risks caused by war.

According to "Reuters", Yandex, known as the "Russian version of Google", issued a statement stating that the Sasovo data center that was attacked is one of the company's five major data hubs and accommodates tens of thousands of servers. The attack caused a fire on site and forced operations to be interrupted. Yandex said that the power supply of its cloud service data center was abnormal and recommended that users switch to other regional resources.

In the past month, the scope of drone strikes by Russia and Ukraine has continued to expand. The Russian military has previously launched large-scale air strikes on Ukrainian data centers and telecommunications facilities, causing network interruptions in tens of thousands of Ukrainian households. In response, Ukraine's Digital Ministry revealed that it has begun to transfer the country's digital infrastructure to underground protection.

The Ukrainian army's attacks on the Russian mainland have caused fuel shortages and inflationary pressures in Russia. Faced with threats to critical facilities, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill in August this year, authorizing the government to take over critical infrastructure when defenses are insufficient. Russian media reported that Russian companies have begun discussing with the government the feasibility of setting up data centers in "friendly countries."