Protecting America’s New Critical Infrastructure, Part II - The New Battlespace

Why Data Centers Are Emerging Targets in Modern Warfare

For generations, warfare was defined by geography. Nations fought to control territory, ports, shipping lanes, rail corridors, energy reserves, and industrial capacity. Strategic infrastructure was tangible and visible—bridges, factories, pipelines, electrical grids.

In the AI era, however, a new strategic landscape is emerging.

The modern battlefield is increasingly digital, and the infrastructure underpinning it is no longer limited to traditional military assets. Compute infrastructure—particularly data centers—is rapidly becoming one of the most strategically important components of national power.

This shift is profound because it changes the role of the data center itself. What was once viewed primarily as commercial infrastructure is evolving into something far more consequential:

a strategic operational asset.

The Infrastructure Behind Modern Power

Nearly every capability associated with modern statecraft and military readiness now depends on compute.

Artificial intelligence systems require enormous processing capacity. Intelligence analysis depends on large-scale data ingestion and real-time processing. Cyber operations require distributed infrastructure. Autonomous systems rely on low-latency compute environments. Government communications, logistics platforms, satellite systems, emergency response networks, and financial systems all depend on resilient digital infrastructure.

Behind each of these systems sit data centers.

Not metaphorically. Physically.

The growing concentration of compute inside strategically important facilities means that data centers are increasingly becoming part of the operational backbone of nations themselves.

This is one reason why governments across the world are investing heavily in sovereign AI initiatives, domestic compute capacity, and trusted cloud infrastructure. Nations increasingly understand that dependence on external compute infrastructure can become a strategic vulnerability.

Compute is becoming a form of national capability.

And wherever capability concentrates, risk follows.

Why Data Centers Are Becoming Targets

Historically, adversaries targeted infrastructure because doing so disrupted a nation’s ability to function. Rail systems slowed logistics. Power disruptions affected industry and communications. Fuel supply attacks constrained mobility.

The same logic increasingly applies to data infrastructure.

Disrupting a major concentration of compute today can affect:

• government operations

• military coordination

• communications systems

• AI-enabled capabilities

• financial networks

• emergency response systems

• public confidence

In many ways, data centers have become the modern equivalent of industrial-era strategic assets.

The difference is that the dependency is far broader than many people realize.

Modern society does not merely use digital systems. It operates through them.

The AI Acceleration Factor

Artificial intelligence is accelerating this transition dramatically.

AI systems are uniquely infrastructure-intensive. They require high-density compute, massive storage environments, advanced networking, and enormous amounts of power. As governments and militaries integrate AI into operational systems, the infrastructure supporting those workloads becomes increasingly strategic.

This changes the threat calculus.

An attack against compute infrastructure is no longer just an attack against IT systems. It may directly impact:

• intelligence processing

• operational decision-making

• autonomous systems

• cyber defense capabilities

• command-and-control environments

In short, data centers are increasingly becoming part of the AI supply chain of national power.

And strategic adversaries understand that.

The Expanding Attack Surface

One of the most important—and least discussed—realities is that data centers now sit at the intersection of multiple interconnected systems.

They rely on:

• power grids

• substations

• telecommunications networks

• cooling systems

• water infrastructure

• supply chains

• operational technology

• cloud ecosystems

This creates a broad and highly interconnected attack surface.

Modern threats are no longer confined to malware targeting servers. Adversaries can exploit vulnerabilities in operational technology, disrupt power delivery, compromise software supply chains, or target the physical systems that keep facilities operational.

The attack surface is becoming increasingly cyber-physical.

This convergence is particularly important because many data centers were originally designed around availability and efficiency—not survivability in contested environments.

That assumption is beginning to change.

The Energy Dimension of the Battlespace

As discussed in earlier Gov DCx analysis, energy is emerging as one of the defining constraints of modern digital infrastructure.

It is also becoming one of its greatest vulnerabilities.

Data centers cannot function without stable, high-quality power. As AI workloads continue to drive unprecedented demand growth, the dependency between energy systems and compute infrastructure becomes tighter and more exposed.

This creates a strategic dynamic where attacks against electrical infrastructure can indirectly disable digital capability.

A compromised substation, disrupted transmission corridor, or destabilized regional grid may have cascading effects across data center operations—even if the facilities themselves are untouched.

In this sense, energy resilience increasingly becomes compute resilience.

And compute resilience increasingly becomes national resilience.

The Risk of Concentration

Another emerging challenge is geographic concentration.

A relatively small number of regions now support outsized portions of national and global compute infrastructure. This concentration creates efficiency and scale, but it also introduces systemic risk.

The more digital capability concentrates into fewer geographic clusters, the greater the potential impact of disruption—whether caused by cyberattack, physical sabotage, grid instability, geopolitical tension, or natural disaster.

This does not mean concentration is inherently wrong. But it does mean resilience must increasingly be considered at the ecosystem level rather than simply at the facility level.

The question is no longer just:

“Is the data center redundant?”

It is increasingly:

“Is the broader infrastructure ecosystem survivable?”

The Shift From Uptime to Survivability

For years, resilience in the data center industry was measured largely through uptime metrics.

That framework made sense in a world primarily concerned with equipment failure and operational continuity.

But the modern threat environment is different.

Today’s risks include:

• coordinated cyber operations

• infrastructure sabotage

• nation-state activity

• supply chain compromise

• AI-enabled attacks

• long-duration grid disruptions

These are not merely operational challenges. They are strategic disruptions.

As a result, the conversation is shifting from redundancy toward survivability.

A resilient data center must increasingly be capable of:

• operating through degraded conditions

• adapting dynamically to changing threats

• maintaining continuity during infrastructure disruption

• recovering rapidly without systemic failure

This is a fundamentally different design philosophy.

Data Centers and National Preparedness

The implications extend far beyond the private sector.

Governments are increasingly dependent on data infrastructure to support public services, emergency response, defense readiness, and national continuity functions. At the same time, many governments are racing to expand AI capability while modernizing aging infrastructure environments.

This creates a pressing strategic question:

How should nations protect the infrastructure that increasingly powers the state itself?

That conversation is still in its early stages.

But it is becoming more urgent.

At Gov DCx, we believe data centers are entering a new phase of strategic importance.

The rise of AI, cyber conflict, and digital dependency is transforming compute infrastructure into a core element of national capability. As that transformation accelerates, resilience can no longer be treated as a secondary operational consideration.

It becomes central to national preparedness.

This is why the future of government data centers will increasingly be shaped not only by scale and performance, but by:

• survivability

• energy resilience

• cyber-physical security

• operational flexibility

• post-quantum readiness

• distributed infrastructure strategy

The modern battlefield is expanding.

And increasingly, it runs through the data center.

Photo: Buffalo Soldier Gate at Fort Bliss in Texas, where a new data center is set to be built.

SGT Michael West