AI data centers are creating new challenges for power grids. Learn how emerging reliability standards and power technologies could reshape their operations.
AI data centers are creating new challenges for power grids. Learn how emerging reliability standards and power technologies could reshape their operations.
When Russia began attacking Ukrainian data centers and telecommunication infrastructure, it apparently failed to prepare for possible retaliation. Now Russiaβs digital services are facing widespread outages after Ukrainian drone strikes knocked out three of the largest data centers owned by Russian tech giant Yandex within several days.
Pro-Kremlin bloggers are warning that Russiaβs centralized digital economy could collapse because the country is not prepared for the βdata center warβ it started, according to poststranslated by the pseudonymous independent researcher ChrisO_wiki. The Russian commentators also suggested that Ukraineβs decentralized digital services could prove more resilient than Russiaβs system if the countries continue trading such blows.
Russia initially launched a drone strike campaign targeting Ukrainian data centers and mobile phone networks in late September. The attacks temporarily disrupted Internet and cell phone service for up to 100,000 households in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and came as part of a broader long-range strike campaign that has involved Russian missiles and jet-powered drones hitting Ukraineβs power grid infrastructure, transportation hubs, and even residential apartment building blocks.
Ukrainian drone strikes have knocked out two of five data centers belonging to the Russian tech giant Yandex. The damage has left Yandex, known as βRussiaβs Googleβ because it operates the countryβs most popular search engine, struggling to maintain its AI chatbot and other online services.
The Ukrainian drones struck Yandex data centers in the Sasovo and Kaluga regions of Russia on October 8 and October 9, according to Reuters. Those actions came as a direct response to a Russian drone strike campaign targeting Ukraineβs data centers, which has disrupted mobile phone and Internet services for thousands of Ukrainians since late September.
βWe continue to respond to Russiaβs attacks on Ukraine, and weβre doing so with high precision,β said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a post on X. βAnother data center was hit as wellβour symmetrical response.β