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Data acquired and examined by "Arabi Post" on the map of cloud service centers and regions (information centers) in the Middle East and North Africa revealed that the region's countries rely heavily on American business for cloud services. The information shows the existence of around 31 American centers, the majority of them in Gulf countries, while the variety of centers owned by Chinese business reached about 7.

In the Gulf countries, more than 53% of the cloud facilities 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 moved from a "technical alternative" for reducing server costs into crucial infrastructure for the state and the economy: e-government portals, payment and banking systems, health and education platforms, and the operation of huge data, synthetic intelligence, and more. The recent Iran war (2026) revealed a new dimension: the cloud itself can be straight and physically targeted, as taken place when Iranian drone strikes harmed Amazon AWS cloud service information centers in the UAE and Bahrain, triggering interruptions and service interruptions.

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However the significance of American and foreign companies does not stop at technical competitors or service quality; it encompasses digital sovereignty and questions of control over data for these nations and their numerous delicate sectors. American business undergo U.S. laws controling lawful access to information, such as the CLOUD Act, raising questions about the limits of judicial ask for information even when it is saved outside the United States.

"CLOUD Act" (March 2018): Area 2713 explicitly obliges interactions and calculating provider to preserve and divulge customer data within their "ownership, custody, or control, despite whether it lies within or outside the United States" verifying the point above. (Click an image to see it complete size.) This reliance likewise intersects with the context of cross-border intelligence gathering under frameworks such as FISA Area 702, as presented by U.S

At the same time, professionals contacted by "Arabi Post" alert of the threats of focusing agreements with American cloud company, and of the impact of "foreign jurisdiction" on privacy and security. In between concerns over sovereignty and the marketplace's need for ready-made infrastructure, the value of information localization policies and the limitations of cross-border data streams is growing, as talked about in international reports such as those by the OECD.

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people or citizens who engage with individuals or organizations in those countries where data centers operated by American business keep the information of those countries and their residents. To understand the scope of this danger, it is required to first 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 gain access to data stored in data centersthe large-scale facilities utilized by business to store and process informationin some cases, under the Act, U.S. authorities might be needed to notify the federal government of the country worried that there is a legal basis compelling access to that data.

The U.S. federal government might likewise penalize or target any U.S. person who participates in monetary deals with that nation or sends out cash transfers to people there. Abu Al-Saad also states that if a disagreement were to occur between that nation and Washington, the United States might suspend its data storage services for that country and justify doing so.

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This would affect all sectors, including financial and banking services. In the context of the security threats connected to countries' dependence on American information centers, another point likewise emergesone that Ibtihal Abu Al-Saad thinks about the most important and most harmful: the U.S. legal and intelligence tool understood as "National Security Letters" (NSLs).

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federal intelligence and security agencies. Under these letters, U.S. authorities have the capability to oblige significant innovation companies to hand over sensitive information connected to citizens or countries. Washington could, for example, force Amazon to open information records belonging to users in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, or somewhere else, while "enforcing a strict nondisclosure order that prevents the technology business from alerting the Bahraini government or the targeted individuals that this gain access to has taken location.