Ermakov said Russian infrastructure was built around economic efficiency and centralization rather than the threat of air attacks. Strikes on data centers exposed the vulnerability of that model, he said, and companies have begun moving to a distributed architecture that places services across a large number of sites in different regions.
The executive also warned of obstacles to that shift. Russia's entire backbone communications network is heavily overloaded, and most fiber-optic lines were built 20 to 30 years ago, he said. Ermakov estimated that fiber loses its light-conducting properties over time and that the country will face a shortage of backbone communications capacity.
Eight days before Ermakov spoke, Rostelecom announced the completion of the TransEurasian fiber-optic line TEA NEXT, which runs 11,000 kilometers across Russia. The cable's design service life is at least 25 years. Ermakov did not specify how much of the existing load the new line would allow to be redistributed.
The Insider later noted that the aging of fiber-optic cable does not by itself mean inevitable degradation after 20 to 30 years. International Telecommunication Union guidance says such cables are designed for stable operation over 20 years and more, and Ermakov presented no public measurement results showing degradation of Russian backbone lines.
From October 8 to 11, drones attacked three Yandex data centers — in Sasovo in the Ryazan region, Kaluga and Vladimir. The facilities in Sasovo and Vladimir shut down completely, and several modules were damaged in Kaluga. The disruptions affected users in at least seven countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Armenia and Serbia. The Insider found that all three of Yandex's supercomputers were located at the attacked sites.
On October 14, Ukrainian drones attacked a Sber data center in the town of Balakovo in the Saratov region for the first time. The company confirmed the attack but said all services were operating normally.