Over the weekend, Armenian users felt the consequences of Ukrainian drone strikes on Yandex data centers. Passengers were unable to order taxis for hours, some had extra money charged to their cards, and cards could not be disconnected from the system.
Drivers also faced problems: they could not see the map, received no information about traffic jams, and could not receive their share of cashless payments.
Yandex Armenia CEO Aram Mkhitaryan did not give specific timelines but said recovery efforts are in full swing: "The main functions have already been restored; secondary and tertiary functions are currently unavailable, some of them are for our internal needs. Right now, our resources are being relocated to other data centers, and they will be available to everyone very soon."
The outages again refreshed the complaints regularly voiced in Armenia. Many noted that the company holds a dominant position in the market, and local taxi services cannot withstand the competition. Others also complained about Armenian services, pointing to service problems and cases of double charging.
There were also complaints about GG, one of Armenia's major taxi services. The company officially responded to users on Facebook, explaining that the system was operating under unprecedented overload. However, GG's owner left calls and messages unanswered.
These days, suggestions are being voiced that Yandex should have its own servers in Armenia to ensure service stability and data security. Mkhitaryan, who is also Yango Group's regional head for Central Asia and the Caucasus, said the proposed solution does not eliminate the problems: "Security is not determined by where data is stored, but by its distribution… We continue our work even after losing three data centers, because we have many data centers."
The outages exposed something that is often discussed in Armenia only in general terms: dependence on a single platform has become everyday infrastructure. When taxi, delivery, and card payments are tied to the same ecosystem, any external strike begins to be felt by ordinary people, not just technology companies.
The responses of officials and company representatives show that the regulatory framework still lags behind market realities. While the commission assures that there are no competition problems, experts speak of the absence of clear rules for the digital domain and data processing. It is between these two positions that the answer must take shape in the near future: whether Armenia will be satisfied with risk management or will try to reduce them.
