Amazon Web Services reports direct drone strikes on UAE data centres and damage in Bahrain, disrupting Middle East cloud services amid regional conflict.
LOS ANGELES: Tech giant Amazon has confirmed two of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates were “directly struck” by drones late Monday. A separate facility in Bahrain was also damaged by “a drone strike in close proximity”.
The attacks have disrupted cloud services in parts of the Middle East. Amazon stated the strikes caused structural damage and disrupted power delivery to its infrastructure.
“Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, both affected regions have experienced physical impacts to infrastructure as a result of drone strikes,” Amazon said in a service update. The company added that fire suppression activities led to additional water damage.
It did not specify if any employees were injured. Amazon said it is working with local authorities and “prioritizing the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts”.
The incidents are part of wider collateral damage affecting Gulf cities. This follows attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran, which killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials.
Amazon Web Services is the world’s leading cloud computing provider. It competes with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to power popular apps, websites, and generative AI.
The company advised affected users to back up critical data and switch to servers in other global regions. On Sunday, Amazon had reported one of its UAE data centres was struck by unspecified “objects”.
