Microsoft hints at bit bunkers for war zones
- Reference: 1775631188
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/04/08/microsoft_armored_datacenters/
- Source link:
These attacks "will have some influence over time on the design and construction of datacenters and it may not be the same everywhere," the software giant's President Brad Smith told [1]Nikkei Asia in a recent interview, evoking images of armored datacenters or perhaps bit bunkers.
Smith also called for "strong international rules to promote the protection of civilian infrastructure," which he argued should include datacenters.
[2]
Microsoft is no stranger to cyberattacks on its infrastructure and systems, but has yet to suffer the kinetic attacks that Iran last month [3]directed at multiple datacenters in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.
[4]
Iranian state media later [5]claimed these strikes were intentional and justified the attacks on the grounds that datacenters may support US military and intelligence operations.
Iran has since [6]threatened strikes on OpenAI's Stargate datacenters, located just across the Persian Gulf in the UAE.
[7]Renewables reached nearly 50% of global electricity capacity last year
[8]Iran targets M365 accounts with password-spraying attacks
[9]Iran war drives urgent need to counter underwater attack drones
[10]The drone swarm is coming, and NATO air defenses are too expensive to cope
Microsoft's datacenter footprint in the Middle East is substantial. The company already operates facilities in the UAE, Qatar, and Israel, and [11]plans to commence operations in Saudi Arabia later this year. All of those locations are within striking distance of Iran.
To our knowledge, none of Microsoft's facilities have been damaged since US President Donald Trump launched his unprovoked attack on Iran in late February. El Reg reached out to the folks in Redmond to confirm; we'll let you know if we hear anything back. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://asia.nikkei.com/editor-s-picks/interview/data-center-security-must-change-after-iran-attacks-microsoft-president
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2adYnQZqC3WasVW-1r76Z8QAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/02/amazon_outages_middle_east/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44adYnQZqC3WasVW-1r76Z8QAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/06/iran_news_aws_drone_strikes/
[6] https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/907427/iran-openai-stargate-datacenter-uae-abu-dhabi-threat
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/01/renewables_generated_nearly_half_global_power/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/31/iran_password_spraying_m365/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/27/us_and_uk_forces_auv_tender/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/23/nato_air_defenses/
[11] https://news.microsoft.com/source/emea/2026/02/microsoft-confirms-saudi-arabia-datacenter-region-available-for-customers-to-run-cloud-workloads-from-q4-2026/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
LOAC1
Strong rules already exist about the targeting of civilian infrastructure in wars (Law of Armed Conflict), but these are routinely ignored by countries that do not accept them or just do not care what they where the drones end up (insert your own list of countries here).
MS might be better to try and push all countries to accept that a) civilian infrastructure should never be targeted and b) civilian infrastructure should never be used by the military (this making it a legitimate target), but good luck with that.
Of course, they could also threaten to withold services from combatants that target their DCs, but the removal of Teams might be a price some people are willing to pay.
Re: LOAC1
Totally.
The rules already exist, but, as you've already pointed out, the application of said rules varies by conflict, country and perceived necessity of outcome
Also, rules are no good without enforcement and potentially repercussions that persuade one to follow them for fear of the consequences.
YMMV on most of this, but no one is following the Law of Armed Conflict explicitly anymore as far as I can see.
"El Reg reached out"
No.
This is El Reg. You do not use bullshit bingo terms.
I know that El Reg is now owned by US fucking A, but we have standards here. You owe your readership to respect those standards.
Not much good if all their lines to the Internet are taken out.
Rather than build in those regions, makes far more sense to have connectivity elsewhere.