Proactive Investors - Data centres have received the first critical national infrastructure designation in nearly a decade, labelling them as important as the likes of the NHS and water supply.
Britain’s government announced the move on Thursday, explaining data centres would be prioritised for support during incidents such as cyber-attacks or extreme weather.
“Data centres are the engines of modern life, they power the digital economy and keep our most personal information safe,” technology secretary Peter Kyle commented.
“Bringing data centres into the critical national infrastructure regime will allow better coordination and cooperation with the government against cyber criminals and unexpected events.”
The government added CrowdStrike’s IT outage earlier in the summer had hit 60% of UK doctor’s surgeries, showing the “catastrophic impact of IT and cyber threats on people’s lives”.
Data centres join 12 other sectors on the UK’s critical infrastructure list, with the space and defence sectors having gained the status in 2015.
Such centres are set to become increasingly important as demand for artificial intelligence picks up, with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Web Services announcing Wednesday it would invest £8 billion to build data sites in the UK, joining Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in similar plans.