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AWS Says It Cannot Restore Access to Data Centers Damaged by Iran Strikes in UAE and Bahrain

By: IDCNOVARegion: Middle East
Amazon Web Services has confirmed that it will be unable to restore access to data and resources hosted exclusively in its Middle East (UAE) (me-central-1) and Middle East (Bahrain) (me-south-1) regions, after the facilities sustained damage from Iranian strikes earlier this year. The disclosure marks one of the most significant disruptions to cloud infrastructure in the region and raises serious questions about the resilience of hyperscale data centers in geopolitically volatile areas.

The damage occurred in early March when Iranian drones began targeting sites in neighboring countries during the outbreak of the US-Israel bombing campaign against Iran. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later claimed a second attack on AWS's Bahrain region in July. AWS opened its Bahrain region in 2019, followed by the UAE region in 2022.

In a status update this week, the cloud giant said: "After a thorough assessment, we have determined that we are unable to restore access to the resources and data hosted exclusively in the mec1-az2 availability zone." The company added that it continues to work on recovering regional resources as well as zonal resources hosted in the other affected availability zones, mec1-az1 and mec1-az3.

For the Bahrain region, AWS was more definitive: "The damage to our infrastructure spanned multiple availability zones and exceeded what our regional and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand. After a thorough assessment, we have determined that we are unable to restore access to the resources and data hosted exclusively in this region."

An Amazon spokesperson told DataCenterDynamics that the suggestion it will not be reopening the impacted data centers contradicted its published status updates. However, when asked directly whether the affected facilities would be reopened with new hardware, the spokesperson declined to elaborate beyond the original statements.

Amazon said it remains "committed" to supporting customers in the UAE and Bahrain, noting: "We are working on replacing the affected infrastructure and will provide an update on the restoration of our services in the coming months. We have notified the relevant authorities and continue to work with them toward that goal." The company said it would share further details on its Bahrain plans in early 2027.

The incident underscores the growing physical security risks facing cloud infrastructure in the Middle East, where geopolitical tensions have escalated sharply. Beyond AWS facilities, several data centers in Iran and an SES satellite ground station facility in Israel have also been struck during the conflict. The damage to AWS's Bahrain region — which exceeded the design tolerances of its multi-availability-zone architecture — highlights the challenge of protecting mission-critical digital infrastructure against military-grade threats.