Cloud services across parts of the Gulf faced major disruption after facilities operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS) were damaged amid escalating regional tensions.
The company confirmed that two data centres in the United Arab Emirates and one in Bahrain were affected by power and connectivity issues. At one UAE site, objects struck infrastructure linked to power systems, triggering a fire. Emergency teams cut electricity, including backup generators, to contain the blaze, leading to an outage in the affected availability zone.
Following the incident, customers in the region reported error messages, delays and difficulty accessing key AWS services. Core functions such as virtual servers, storage systems and networking tools were impacted, particularly in the Middle East cloud region cluster. Some users experienced problems launching new computing instances, while others saw increased latency and incomplete processing.
AWS said recovery efforts were underway but warned that full restoration could take several hours or longer. The company advised customers to shift workloads to other AWS regions or activate backup systems to reduce disruption.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions involving Iran and its regional rivals, with drone and missile activity reported across parts of the Gulf. While AWS did not directly attribute the damage to a specific military strike, it acknowledged that regional instability could continue to affect operations.
The disruption highlights how geopolitical conflicts are increasingly impacting critical digital infrastructure. Data centres power banking systems, government platforms, retail services and communication networks. Any prolonged outage can have ripple effects across businesses and public services.
As restoration continues, companies relying on cloud infrastructure in the region are closely monitoring the situation, with contingency planning now a key focus amid ongoing uncertainty.
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