Damage to several Amazon Web Services facilities in the Middle East following Iranian drone strikes is drawing attention to both the rapid expansion of data centers in the region and the risks they face in areas affected by conflict.
Amazon’s cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), reported late Monday that two of its data centers in the United Arab Emirates were directly hit, while another facility in Bahrain sustained damage after a drone landed nearby, according to the Associated Press. Reuters reported that the incident marks the first known time a major U.S. technology company’s data center infrastructure has been struck during military action.
In a status update posted to its online dashboard, AWS said the strikes caused structural damage and disrupted power systems at the affected facilities. The company added that fire suppression systems were activated in some areas, which led to additional water damage. By late Tuesday, AWS said recovery work at the UAE sites was underway and showing progress.
Unlike past AWS outages caused by software problems that triggered widespread global disruptions, the damage from the drone strikes appears to have caused only limited and localized service interruptions. However, Reuters reports that some financial services firms operating in the region have experienced disruptions.
AWS provides the underlying cloud infrastructure for many widely used online services, supporting government agencies, universities, and businesses around the world. The company advised customers running servers in the Middle East to shift workloads to other regions and redirect internet traffic away from the UAE and Bahrain facilities while recovery continues.
Mike Chapple, an information technology professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, said AWS typically designs its systems so that the loss of a single data center does not significantly impact operations.
“Amazon has generally configured its services so that the loss of a single data center would be relatively unimportant to its operations,” Chapple said. He explained that other data centers in the same zone can usually take over workloads, often seamlessly. However, he warned that losing multiple facilities within the same availability zone could create serious capacity problems.
Amazon does not publicly disclose the exact number of data centers it operates worldwide. The company says its infrastructure is organized into 39 geographic regions, including three in the Middle East serving the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Israel.
AWS says its data centers are built with redundant water, power, telecommunications, and internet connections to maintain operations during emergencies. Facilities also include physical security measures such as guards, fencing, surveillance systems, and alarms. However, these protections are primarily intended to deter unauthorized access and are not designed to defend against missile or drone attacks.
Chapple said the incident serves as a reminder that cloud computing still depends on physical infrastructure.
“Cloud computing isn’t magical,” he said. “It still requires physical facilities on the ground, and those facilities remain vulnerable to many types of disasters.” He added that organizations relying on cloud providers in the Middle East should consider shifting their computing workloads to other regions as a precaution.