Russia plans to move data centers underground due to drone strikes

Russian companies and authorities have begun emergency development of plans to place critical digital infrastructure underground. The reason is the increasing frequency of Ukrainian drone attacks on server facilities and computing centers that support AI services and cloud platforms.

According to Ars Technica, the operator Rostelecom is in talks with Nornickel to build secure underground facilities. In parallel, relevant officials have proposed using abandoned coal mines for these purposes, as reported by DataCenterDynamics.

The need to rethink data center architecture arose after a series of successful strikes on ground infrastructure, including the recent disabling of a large computing cluster. Traditional data centers have proven vulnerable to modern weapons due to a shortage of air defense systems.

Moving servers underground will require significant engineering changes, including new autonomous cooling and power supply systems for powerful AI clusters. This could significantly increase the time and cost of deploying computing power in the region.