The war between Russia and Ukraine is now in its third week. Ukraine has received all kinds of help (direct and indirect) from different countries inside and outside of Europe. Russia has been subjected to strict bans by various countries and companies are now withdrawing from the Russian market. After Western cloud providers withdrew from Russia, the country is now facing a severe IT storage crisis. Russia reportedly has just two months before it runs out of data storage.

However, the Russian government is currently examining its options to solve this problem. The government has the ability to confiscate all available data storage from companies that have pulled out of the country. It could also lease any available Russian data storage.

According to Kommersant , Russia has about two months before it runs out of available disk space. After Western cloud services severed their ties with Russia, domestic companies were forced to turn to Russian cloud storage. The storage capacity of the Russian mobile operator MegaFon has increased fivefold. In addition, MTS has increased tenfold, while VK had to seek 20% more memory resources.

Currently there are not enough data centers to accommodate the operators in Russia. The government is therefore urgently working on a practical solution to the problem. In addition, due to ongoing “Smart City” projects, more storage capacity is also required. These projects include extensive video surveillance and facial recognition systems.

Possible solutions

1. Russian telecom operators no longer have to increase their storage capacity allocation by 15% annually. This additional requirement was previously used for anti-terrorist surveillance. The Yarovaya Law Governing this annual increase was changed just last week.

2. ISPs must abandon media streaming services. Other “non-essential” online outlets that consume storage space will also have to stop their activities.

3. The Russian government may only need to buy up all the available memory from processing centers. This means the government will tightly control data storage and there will be no place for entertainers.

4. The Russian government is likely to take over the stocks left behind by foreign companies that have left Russia.

5. Russia may need to contact China. However, China has yet to confirm whether or not it will help Russia. So this option is still pending. Still, Chinese companies like Huawei, already facing numerous bans from the US, may have to give up the opportunity and fill the void left by the exit of Western competitors.