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Data gotten and examined by "Arabi Post" on the map of cloud service centers and areas (data centers) in the Middle East and North Africa revealed that the area's nations rely greatly on American business for cloud services. The data shows the existence of around 31 American centers, most of them in Gulf countries, while the number of centers owned by Chinese companies reached about 7.

In the Gulf nations, more than 53% of the cloud infrastructure tracked there is American. Source: "Arabi Post" database of cloud service centers in the Middle East and North Africa (89 centers).

Within a couple of years, cloud service centers have shifted from a "technical alternative" for reducing server costs into critical infrastructure for the state and the economy: e-government websites, payment and banking systems, health and education platforms, and the operation of huge data, expert system, and more. However the recent Iran war (2026) exposed a new dimension: the cloud itself can be straight and physically targeted, as occurred when Iranian drone strikes damaged Amazon AWS cloud service information centers in the UAE and Bahrain, triggering disruptions and service outages.

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The significance of American and foreign companies does not stop at technical competition or service quality; it extends to digital sovereignty and concerns of control over data for these countries and their various sensitive sectors. American companies are subject to U.S. laws managing lawful access to data, such as the CLOUD Act, raising questions about the limitations of judicial requests for data even when it is saved outside the United States.

"CLOUD Act" (March 2018): Section 2713 clearly forces interactions and computing company to maintain and disclose subscriber information within their "possession, custody, or control, no matter whether it lies within or outside the United States" confirming the point above. (Click an image to view it complete size.) This dependence also converges with the context of cross-border intelligence gathering under frameworks such as FISA Area 702, as provided by U.S

At the exact same time, specialists called by "Arabi Post" alert of the threats of concentrating contracts with American cloud provider, and of the effect of "foreign jurisdiction" on privacy and security. Between concerns over sovereignty and the market's need for ready-made facilities, the importance of data localization policies and the limitations of cross-border data flows is growing, as talked about in worldwide reports such as those by the OECD.

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residents or citizens who interact with people or companies in those countries where data centers operated by American business store the data of those countries and their people. To comprehend the scope of this risk, it is needed to initially analyze U.S. federal laws such as FISA Area 702 and the CLOUD Act, which governs U.S.

Although the CLOUD Act grants Washington broad authority to access data kept in data centersthe massive infrastructure used by companies to store and process informationin some cases, under the Act, U.S. authorities may be required to inform the government of the country concerned that there is a legal basis compelling access to that data.

The U.S. federal government might likewise punish or target any U.S. citizen who takes part in financial deals with that country or sends out money transfers to individuals there. Abu Al-Saad also says that if a conflict were to occur between that country and Washington, the United States might suspend its information storage services for that country and validate doing so.

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This would impact all sectors, including financial and banking services. In the context of the security risks linked to countries' reliance on American information centers, another point likewise emergesone that Ibtihal Abu Al-Saad considers the most essential and most hazardous: the U.S. legal and intelligence tool called "National Security Letters" (NSLs).

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federal intelligence and security companies. Under these letters, U.S. authorities have the ability to oblige major technology business to turn over delicate information connected to residents or countries. Washington could, for instance, force Amazon to open data records belonging to users in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, or elsewhere, while "enforcing a rigorous nondisclosure order that prevents the technology company from informing the Bahraini federal government or the targeted people that this gain access to has taken location.