Growing geopolitical tensions in West Asia are pushing leading cloud providers to reconsider where they host critical data. India has become a preferred alternative as companies look for stability and robust infrastructure.
Major cloud firms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are reportedly planning to reroute workloads from cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Oman to safer locations, including India and Singapore. This move aims to maintain service continuity as uncertainty in the region affects global businesses.
Industry insiders said providers are seeking immediate capacity in Indian cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kochi to handle crucial workloads, particularly for banking clients. “Immediate capacity is being sought in locations including Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi to reroute critical workloads, especially for banking clients,” an infrastructure company executive confirmed.
The shift follows a major incident on March 2, when 2 AWS data centres in the United Arab Emirates and 1 in Bahrain were hit by drones. The attack disrupted local banking apps, airport operations in Dubai and Kuwait, and forced the UAE stock market to close temporarily. Several AWS services in the Middle East remain affected or degraded.
There were also reports suggesting a Microsoft Azure facility in Tehran may have been targeted, though the company has not confirmed any disruptions.
Analysts note that the Middle East represents about 1 gigawatt of data centre capacity, making it a key cloud region. Due to recent unrest, many enterprises have activated disaster recovery plans to protect their operations.
India is emerging as a strong alternative thanks to its growing data centre capacity and robust connectivity. Subsea cable networks allow IT workloads to flow efficiently toward Asia, while maintaining links to Europe.
The country’s data centre ecosystem is expanding rapidly, with global hyperscale firms and Indian conglomerates like Reliance Industries, Adani Group, Tata Group, and Larsen & Toubro investing approximately $270 billion. This could increase India’s total capacity from 1.4 gigawatts to 10 gigawatts over the next 5–7 years. Analysts also point out that India currently has surplus capacity, with several new facilities added in the last 12–15 months.
While the rerouting may be temporary, experts say it could encourage global companies to establish long-term backup infrastructure in India. Cloud providers continue advising Middle East clients to activate disaster recovery plans and migrate workloads to alternate regions to avoid disruptions.
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