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

In the Gulf countries, more than 53% of the cloud facilities tracked there is American. Iran, meanwhile, appears to be an extraordinary case among all the area's nations, as it relies entirely on a 100% local cloud environment. 89cloud centers throughout 22 countries 35%American companies' share (31 centers) 53%Gulf dependence on U.S.

Click any point to view details about the center, consisting of the operating business, its citizenship, and the year it was released. Utilize the filters to focus on a specific nationality, or look for a particular center or country. Source: "Arabi Post" database of cloud service centers in the Middle East and North Africa (89 centers).

Within a few years, cloud service centers have actually shifted from a "technical option" for decreasing server costs into critical facilities for the state and the economy: e-government portals, payment and banking systems, health and education platforms, and the operation of big data, artificial intelligence, and more. However the current Iran war (2026) exposed a brand-new dimension: the cloud itself can be straight and physically targeted, as occurred when Iranian drone strikes harmed Amazon AWS cloud service information centers in the UAE and Bahrain, triggering disruptions and service failures.

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However the significance of American and foreign business does not stop at technical competitors or service quality; it extends to digital sovereignty and questions of control over information for these countries and their numerous sensitive sectors. American companies go through U.S. laws controling lawful access to data, such as the CLOUD Act, raising concerns about the limitations of judicial ask for data even when it is stored outside the United States.

"CLOUD Act" (March 2018): Section 2713 clearly compels interactions and computing provider to protect and reveal customer information within their "ownership, custody, or control, despite whether it is situated within or outside the United States" verifying the point above. (Click an image to see it full size.) This reliance also intersects with the context of cross-border intelligence event under frameworks such as FISA Section 702, as provided by U.S

At the exact same time, professionals contacted by "Arabi Post" alert of the risks of focusing agreements with American cloud service companies, and of the impact of "foreign jurisdiction" on personal privacy and security. Between concerns over sovereignty and the marketplace's need for ready-made facilities, the importance of data localization policies and the limits of cross-border information streams is growing, as gone over in international reports such as those by the OECD.

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citizens or citizens who communicate with individuals or companies in those nations where information centers operated by American companies save the information of those nations and their people. To understand the scope of this danger, it is essential to initially examine U.S. federal laws such as FISA Section 702 and the CLOUD Act, which governs U.S.

Although the CLOUD Act grants Washington broad authority to gain access to information stored in data centersthe massive facilities utilized by companies to store and process informationin some cases, under the Act, U.S. authorities might be required to notify the federal government of the nation concerned that there is a legal basis compelling access to that information.

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

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This would impact all sectors, consisting of financial and banking services. In the context of the security risks connected to countries' dependence on American information centers, another point likewise emergesone that Ibtihal Abu Al-Saad considers the most crucial and most harmful: the U.S. legal and intelligence tool known as "National Security Letters" (NSLs).

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federal intelligence and security companies. Under these letters, U.S. authorities have the capability to compel major innovation business to hand over sensitive information related to people or countries. Washington could, for instance, force Amazon to open data records belonging to users in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, or somewhere else, while "enforcing a strict nondisclosure order that avoids the technology business from notifying the Bahraini federal government or the targeted individuals that this gain access to has actually happened.