Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered owners of private data centers in Russia to keep 10% of their capacity available for state IT infrastructure, so it can be brought online quickly if needed. According to Tom's Hardware, citing Reuters, the Digital Development Ministry will inventory available capacity and floor space at private facilities, and a new government commission will be able to order the reserved capacity released. Once ordered, owners will have 24 hours to comply. Temporary use of data centers outside Russia has also been floated, subject to approval by the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The move follows weeks in which Russian data centers have become targets of Ukrainian drone attacks. In early October the country's largest data center, a 63-megawatt facility, was hit, and users reported problems with Yandex services. Two weeks later the finance ministry's data center, reportedly home to Russia's tax databases, was damaged.
On the same day, Russia's Federal State Statistics Service admitted that its servers had been hit by cyberattacks in which 23TB of data was stolen. It is not yet known when the order will take effect.