Iran Conflict Escalation Disrupts Amazon’s Middle East Cloud Operations

When conflict hits the ground, the cloud feels it too.

Amazon confirmed Monday that its AWS cloud region in Bahrain has been “disrupted” due to drone activity tied to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The company is now urging customers to shift their computing workloads to other regions while it works to recover.

“As this situation evolves and, as we have advised before, we request those with workloads in the affected regions continue to migrate to other locations,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement Monday night, according to Reuters.

Recurring attacks strain AWS infrastructure

The disruption marks the second time in a month that the company’s operations in Bahrain have been hit. Earlier in March, AWS reported that facilities in both Bahrain and the UAE had lost power following drone strikes.

“These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage,” AWS said earlier this month on its status page, per Reuters. The company described the recovery from that incident as “prolonged.”

As of Monday night, AWS had not updated its official status page to reflect the new impact. The company also did not provide details on the extent of any damage or how long the disruption is expected to last.

An Amazon spokesperson told Reuters the disruption is due to drone activity in the area. However, the company did not immediately respond to a query about whether its Bahrain facility was directly struck or if the disruption resulted from nearby attacks.

AWS serves as the backbone for countless well-known websites, government operations, and businesses across the globe. It is also the company’s main profit driver. The repeated disruptions highlight the vulnerability of physical data centers during active conflict.

According to Reuters, the strike on the UAE facility earlier this month marked the first time military action had disrupted a major US tech company’s data center.

A region on edge

The attacks come amid rising tensions following the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to target US-linked digital and energy infrastructure in the Gulf region, according to Al Jazeera.

AWS opened its Bahrain region in 2019 as part of a push to expand cloud services in the Middle East. But the current instability has made operations there increasingly unpredictable.

For now, Amazon is focused on moving customers out of harm’s way, at least digitally. The company said it continues to support affected customers in migrating to alternative AWS regions, with many already successfully running their applications elsewhere.

“We are working closely with local authorities and prioritising the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts,” an AWS representative told The National on Tuesday.

For more on Amazon’s expanding tech footprint, check out its $536M robot-powered warehouse in Australia, where humans and AI-driven machines will handle over 125 million packages a year.

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