Drones strike three AWS data centres in UAE and Bahrain, disrupting cloud services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has warned customers of potentially prolonged service disruption after drone strikes damaged three of its data centres in the Middle East, highlighting how the region’s conflict is spilling over into critical technology infrastructure.

AWS said for the first time that drones had “directly struck” two facilities in the United Arab Emirates. In Bahrain, it said a drone strike near another facility damaged infrastructure.

“We are working to restore full service availability as quickly as possible, though we expect recovery to be prolonged given the nature of the physical damage involved,” the company said in a public update. 

AWS also acknowledged that customers are experiencing elevated error rates and degraded availability.

In an update posted at 4.19am UAE time on Tuesday (March 3), AWS said two of its three regional data-centre hubs remained significantly impaired. A third regional zone was operating normally, although “some services have experienced indirect impact due to dependencies on the affected zones,” it said.

The disruption comes amid a broader conflict reverberating across the Middle East, with reports of blasts in countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. 

The economic fallout has also spread to global energy markets, with oil prices rising and tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz reportedly slowing sharply due to security risks.

AWS operates 123 zones across 39 regions worldwide. The company said it is accelerating repairs and advised customers in the Middle East to back up data and consider temporarily shifting workloads to other regions.

“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 said. The company declined to comment beyond its public updates.