Amazon Reports Drone Strike Damage at Two Data Centers in the Middle East [United States-Iran Conflict]

Three Facilities Shut Down, Including Sites in UAE and Bahrain

Amazon logo. Photo by Reuters and Yonhap News

As the conflict between the United States and Iran intensifies, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud subsidiary of Amazon, the largest e-commerce company in the United States, has reported that its data center facilities operating in the Middle East have been damaged by drone strikes.

According to Reuters, AWS announced that on the night of March 1 (local time), two data centers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one facility in Bahrain were hit by drone attacks, resulting in operational shutdowns.

In the latest update posted at 7:19 p.m. Eastern Time, AWS acknowledged that the blackout was caused by drone strikes related to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

AWS stated, "In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly hit, and in Bahrain, a drone strike near our facility caused physical damage to infrastructure. These attacks caused structural damage, interrupted power supply, and resulted in some water damage due to firefighting efforts."

AWS said it is working quickly to restore operations but added, "Given the nature of the physical damage, recovery may take an extended period." The company said it would provide further updates. AWS also warned that continued instability in the Middle East could make operations "unpredictable."

The company recommended that customers running workloads in the affected region consider mitigation measures such as backing up data or transferring workloads to other regions.

Amazon had previously warned customers that deliveries in the Middle East could be delayed as Iran launched missiles and drones in response to attacks by the United States and Israel. The company posted a notice at the top of marketplace pages for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE stating that "delivery times may be extended."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.