Major Cloud Vendors Halt New Sales in Russia Amid Ukraine Invasion
Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and IBM all suspend new cloud sales in Russia in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine, while Cloudflare maintains its local services to keep the internet accessible.
Major technology companies join the growing corporate exodus from Russia by suspending cloud infrastructure sales in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Following the lead of consumer brands like McDonald's and Visa, tech giants including Adobe, Apple, and PayPal cut ties with the country over the past several weeks. The world's top cloud vendors, namely Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and IBM, subsequently take similar steps to restrict access to their critical digital services.
Amazon Web Services updates its initial stance by officially blocking new sign-ups for AWS in both Russia and Belarus. Microsoft goes further by suspending all new sales of its products and services across the country, an action that directly impacts its Azure cloud platform. Google Cloud and IBM adopt matching policies, with both companies explicitly confirming that they no longer accept new Russian customers.
Unlike the primary cloud providers, Cloudflare chooses a different approach due to its role as an internet infrastructure provider. The company decides to keep its services running inside Russia to ensure local citizens maintain access to the global internet. Cloudflare reaches this decision after careful consultation with government and civil society experts, prioritizing internet availability over a complete service shutdown.