Google may take back its old servers from Russian providers

Google has notified Russian Internet service providers of plans to decommission and take away the Dell R720 caching servers that were used as part of the Google Global Cache (GGC) system. This was reported by RBC on December 26, citing sources.

"Dear GGC Partner, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that we will be decommissioning Dell R720 machines located in your infrastructure. These machines have been discontinued and do not have a warranty period. All other Google Global Cache machines hosted on your network will remain in operation," the publication cites the text of the notification.

It clarifies that Dell R720 servers were used to speed up the delivery of content to users: they stored cached data from YouTube, Google Maps, updates for the Android operating system (OS) and the Chrome browser, as well as images from the search engine. Decommissioning of the equipment, according to RBC, is scheduled to begin on January 26, 2026.

According to the RBC source, in an additional letter, Google asked the providers to turn off the servers, remove them from the racks and provide an address for export. Some of the equipment has already been removed from some operators. It is noted that the issue of transfer and disposal of servers from Google is handled by the European company MPK Asset Solutions, specializing in lifecycle management of IT equipment.

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On December 19, the Moscow court brought Google to administrative responsibility and fined it. It was clarified that the court imposed a fine of 15.2 million rubles under Article 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of the procedure for restricting access to information, information resources, access to which is subject to restriction in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on information, information technology and information protection, and (or) the procedure for deleting said information").

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