Iran has threatened to target US technology company infrastructure in the Gulf, risking billions in digital assets and global tech disruption. The region hosts critical cloud data centers and submarine cables, and past attacks have caused significant operational losses and service outages.
Major cloud providers are considering moving workloads to safer locations like India and Singapore. The threats also expose risks to global supply chains, including helium for semiconductor manufacturing, and could impact a wide range of businesses relying on these digital platforms.
The main topics covered are the Iranian threat to tech infrastructure, the scale and value of Gulf digital assets, the consequences of past and potential attacks, the strategic shift of data workloads, and the broader risks to global commerce and supply chains.
Iranâs threat against US technology companies in the Gulf region could expose billions of dollars in digital infrastructure to war risks, potentially disrupting the global technology economy, experts said.
On Wednesday, the Iranian force issued a warning that it would target infrastructure of companies such as Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle in the Middle East/Israel.
The Gulf currently hosts more than 70 data centres with an estimated 557-738 megawatts of live IT capacity. This includes 10 cloud regions operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, and Alibaba.
An additional $30 billion worth of projects are currently under construction.
The March 3 drone attack on two AWS facilities had already disrupted global businesses like Emirates NBD, Snowflake, Policybazaar UAE, banking apps, and the UAE stock markets, as per reports.
âIncidents of this scale typically generate tens of millions of dollars in combined operational losses when infrastructure repair, service downtime, and mitigation costs are included,â said Matvii Diadkov, technology investor and advisor to Gulf businesses. âCloud operators must repair damaged equipment and restore systems, while customers absorb the cost of interrupted digital services.â
ET had reported that hyperscale cloud companies including Microsoft Azure and AWS are looking to redirect data centre workloads from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman to safer locations such as India and Singapore due to the West Asian conflict.
Indian multinationals also face indirect exposure. âConsumer and FMCG firms such as HUL or Nestlé rely heavily on globally hosted ERP (enterprise resource planning), supplyâchain, finance and analytics platforms,â said an executive at a global advisory firm. âDisruption to cloud availability or regional dataâcentre operations can interrupt forecasting, procurement, billing and distribution systems, with downstream effects in India.â
The region is also a critical digital corridor with around 90% of Europe-Asia internet traffic passing through these routes, supported by roughly 20 submarine cable systems and 13 active Internet Exchange Points across the Gulf.
âUndersea cables and regional network hubs represent latent risk, not because of constant attack, but because temporary outages or rerouting can degrade performance, increase latency and destabilise timeâsensitive digital services across continents,â the above quoted person said.
Workforce disruption is another âunderâappreciated secondâorder riskâ, as employees increasingly rely on remote access, expanding the cyber-attack surface.
Siddharth Vishwanath, Partner and Risk Consulting Leader at PwC India explained that the risk is not limited to large technology firms. Brickâandâmortar companies and midâscale technology companies with global operations are equally exposed. âWhat is at stake is service availability, data integrity and trust in shared digital platforms that underpin global commerce,â he said.
âUS tech vendors should treat these threats as a signal that digital infrastructure is now part of geopolitical conflicts,â said Ashish Banerjee, senior principal analyst at Gartner. âThey should ensure critical workloads can fail over to other cloud regions if disruptions occur.â
Another factor people often overlook is supply chains for technology production, Diadkov said. For example, about one third of global helium production is located in Qatar, and helium is a critical component for semiconductor manufacturing. âIf supply from the region is disrupted, it could affect chip production, equipment repair, and the ability to build new semiconductor devices,â he said.
On Wednesday, the Iranian force issued a warning that it would target infrastructure of companies such as Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle in the Middle East/Israel.
The Gulf currently hosts more than 70 data centres with an estimated 557-738 megawatts of live IT capacity. This includes 10 cloud regions operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, and Alibaba.
An additional $30 billion worth of projects are currently under construction.
The March 3 drone attack on two AWS facilities had already disrupted global businesses like Emirates NBD, Snowflake, Policybazaar UAE, banking apps, and the UAE stock markets, as per reports.
âIncidents of this scale typically generate tens of millions of dollars in combined operational losses when infrastructure repair, service downtime, and mitigation costs are included,â said Matvii Diadkov, technology investor and advisor to Gulf businesses. âCloud operators must repair damaged equipment and restore systems, while customers absorb the cost of interrupted digital services.â
ET had reported that hyperscale cloud companies including Microsoft Azure and AWS are looking to redirect data centre workloads from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman to safer locations such as India and Singapore due to the West Asian conflict.
Indian multinationals also face indirect exposure. âConsumer and FMCG firms such as HUL or Nestlé rely heavily on globally hosted ERP (enterprise resource planning), supplyâchain, finance and analytics platforms,â said an executive at a global advisory firm. âDisruption to cloud availability or regional dataâcentre operations can interrupt forecasting, procurement, billing and distribution systems, with downstream effects in India.â
The region is also a critical digital corridor with around 90% of Europe-Asia internet traffic passing through these routes, supported by roughly 20 submarine cable systems and 13 active Internet Exchange Points across the Gulf.
âUndersea cables and regional network hubs represent latent risk, not because of constant attack, but because temporary outages or rerouting can degrade performance, increase latency and destabilise timeâsensitive digital services across continents,â the above quoted person said.
Workforce disruption is another âunderâappreciated secondâorder riskâ, as employees increasingly rely on remote access, expanding the cyber-attack surface.
Siddharth Vishwanath, Partner and Risk Consulting Leader at PwC India explained that the risk is not limited to large technology firms. Brickâandâmortar companies and midâscale technology companies with global operations are equally exposed. âWhat is at stake is service availability, data integrity and trust in shared digital platforms that underpin global commerce,â he said.
âUS tech vendors should treat these threats as a signal that digital infrastructure is now part of geopolitical conflicts,â said Ashish Banerjee, senior principal analyst at Gartner. âThey should ensure critical workloads can fail over to other cloud regions if disruptions occur.â
Another factor people often overlook is supply chains for technology production, Diadkov said. For example, about one third of global helium production is located in Qatar, and helium is a critical component for semiconductor manufacturing. âIf supply from the region is disrupted, it could affect chip production, equipment repair, and the ability to build new semiconductor devices,â he said.
Meridiano
