Amazon said on Monday that its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), experienced connectivity issues at data centres in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as regional tensions escalated following retaliatory Iranian strikes.
The disruptions come amid a wave of missile and drone attacks launched by Iran in response to recent US and Israeli military operations. Iranian strikes have reportedly targeted airports, ports and residential areas across the Gulf region.
Amazon said one of its AWS availability zones in the UAE remained without power after “objects” struck the facility, causing sparks and a fire. While the company reported partial service recovery in the UAE, it advised customers to switch to alternate AWS regions as engineers investigate “additional connectivity issues and error rates.”
The company did not confirm whether the incident at the UAE data centre was directly linked to the Iranian strikes, declining to comment on a possible connection.
Amazon also reported connectivity problems at its Bahrain data centre but did not provide a specific cause. The company did not immediately respond to further requests for comment.
AWS operates multiple availability zones across the Middle East to support businesses, governments and financial institutions that rely on cloud infrastructure for critical operations. Any prolonged disruption could affect a wide range of digital services in the region.
The incident underscores the growing impact of geopolitical instability on global technology infrastructure, as escalating military tensions begin to affect commercial and civilian systems beyond traditional security targets.
Melissa Enoch
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