Amazon Web Services (AWS) confirmed that recent drone strikes in the Middle East have caused significant physical damage to its data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, leading to widespread service disruptions and a prolonged recovery period. The incident marks a critical moment for the region’s digital infrastructure, raising new questions about its resilience amid geopolitical tensions.
Direct Impact and Physical Damage
In a status page update, the cloud computing giant detailed the extent of the damage following a barrage of drones and missiles reportedly launched by Iran. The strikes directly hit key infrastructure, impacting the core of AWS operations in the Gulf.
“In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly struck, while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impact to our infrastructure,” AWS stated.
The company further elaborated on the consequences, noting, “These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage.”
AWS has cautioned its clients that the recovery process will be lengthy due to the severe nature of the physical harm to the facilities.
Widespread Service Disruption
The outage impacted a dozen core cloud services, affecting a wide range of customers, including financial institutions that rely heavily on AWS for their operations. A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that banks were among those affected by the disruption.
Highlighting the ripple effect, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) announced on LinkedIn that its platforms and mobile application were unavailable due to a “region-wide IT disruption,” although it did not explicitly link the issue to the AWS incident.
In response, AWS has advised customers to back up critical data and, where possible, shift their operations to servers in unaffected AWS regions to mitigate further impact.
Implications for MENA’s Tech Infrastructure
This event is the first time a major US technology company’s data center has been physically struck in a regional conflict, sending a cautionary signal to the MENA tech ecosystem. The incident underscores the vulnerability of the physical infrastructure that underpins the region’s rapidly growing digital economy.
For the hundreds of startups, enterprises, and government entities across MENA that depend on cloud services for their daily operations, the outage serves as a stark reminder of the importance of robust disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
“Even as we work to restore these facilities, the ongoing conflict in the region means that the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable,” AWS added in its statement. This highlights the critical need for regional companies to architect their systems with multi-region redundancy to ensure resilience against localized disruptions.
About Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster.
