TLDR
- Unidentified objects impacted AWS facilities in the UAE on Sunday, triggering sparks and fire damage
- Local fire authorities disconnected power to the affected facility; another UAE zone subsequently experienced independent power failures
- Bahrain-based AWS infrastructure is experiencing power and network connectivity challenges
- These disruptions align temporally with Iranian retaliatory operations throughout the Gulf region, though AWS hasn’t verified a connection
- Customers have been advised to utilize alternative regional services, with restoration timelines estimated at several hours
Amazon Web Services experienced significant service interruptions following an incident at its United Arab Emirates data center on Sunday, where unidentified projectiles struck the facility, igniting a fire and causing power disruptions.
The disruption began approximately 4:30 p.m. local Dubai time. Emergency responders disconnected electrical power to the building as part of fire suppression operations.
On its official status dashboard, AWS documented the situation, noting that “objects struck the data center, creating sparks and fire” at one of its UAE availability zones.
Subsequently, a different availability zone within the UAE region encountered what AWS characterized as a “localized power issue,” further extending service disruptions across the territory.
The company’s cloud division additionally reported electrical and network connectivity complications affecting one of its Bahrain operational zones.
AWS instructed clients to redirect their operations to services hosted in alternate geographic regions during the restoration process. Company representatives indicated that full recovery would require “multiple hours away.”
These service disruptions occurred simultaneously with Iranian projectile strikes targeting the UAE, forming part of a broader retaliatory campaign throughout the Middle East in response to combined US and Israeli strikes that resulted in the deaths of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and additional high-ranking Iranian leadership.
Iran’s counteroffensive extended throughout the region, with missile and unmanned aerial vehicle attacks documented against US military installations and partner nations including the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
AWS has neither confirmed nor disputed whether the damage to its UAE data center infrastructure resulted directly from Iranian military operations. Company representatives declined to provide additional comment when approached for clarification.
AWS UAE Customers Affected
Prominent AWS clients operating in the UAE encompass Al Ghurair Investment LLC and Dubai Islamic Bank.
AWS maintains 123 availability zones distributed across 39 geographic regions worldwide, providing extensive infrastructure redundancy — although this distributed architecture didn’t completely shield the organization from service impacts in this instance.
Recovery Still Underway
The company initially reported partial restoration progress earlier Monday but subsequently revised those assessments, continuing to direct customers toward alternative regional resources.
As of Monday morning in Dubai, both UAE availability zones along with one Bahrain zone continued experiencing service impacts.
Amazon stock (AMZN) was trading up 1.00% as of the most recent market update.
