Iranian state-affiliated media says the IRGC has targeted Microsoft data centers in the Gulf region with kamikaze drones, days after IRGC drone strikes hit Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates. This underscores a new escalation: commercial data centers no longer appear to be off-limits, a risk we warned readers a little more than a month ago. “The targeting of Amazon and Microsoft in these operations has dealt a serious blow to the enemy’s technological and information infrastructure,” Fars News Agency said in a Telegram post, as quoted by the Financial Times. On Monday, two AWS data centers in the UAE were hit by IRGC drones, while an AWS facility in Bahrain was nearly struck by one of these next-generation, low-cost kamikaze drones. These incidents marked the first known instance of a commercial data center being physically targeted in a conflict. We pointed out in the note titled “Explosion In AI Data Center Buildouts Will Demand Next-Gen Counter-Drone Security” that Wall Street analysts largely end their analysis at the financing and construction of next-generation data centers, with limited discussion regarding the modern security architecture required once these facilities are built and become instant high-value targets for non-state actors or foreign adversaries. […]