Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is no longer taking on new customers from Russia and Belarus for its AWS cloud service in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Unlike other U.S. technology providers, AWS has no data centers, infrastructure, or offices in Russia, and we have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government,” the company said in a blog post. “We have also stopped allowing new sign-ups for AWS in Russia and Belarus.”
“Given the current events and the uncertainty and lack of credit available in Russia right now, we’re not accepting new Russian AWS customers at this moment,” Drew Herdener, a top company spokesman, told the New York Times.
AWS is the latest technology company to distance itself from business in Russia and Belarus after Microsoft Corp. suspended new sales in Russia last week.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov had asked Amazon to suspend its cloud services in Russia.
"Suspending the provision of AWS services in the Russian Federation will support a global united motion of many governments and businesses who have chosen long-term stability and growth over potential temporary profit losses," Fedorov wrote in a letter to Amazon that he posted on Twitter on Sunday.
Cutting off all cloud services would be crippling for companies in Russia, cloud industry executives and analysts told Geekwire. They also highlighted potential problems with defining a “Russian company” and determining the best technical means of blocking access to services.
According to Amazon, its biggest customers using AWS in Russia are headquartered elsewhere, with development teams in the country.