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Amazon's AWS unable to restore Bahrain cloud facility, one UAE data zone after Iran war damage
AWS said damage during the Iran war affected its Bahrain facility and one UAE data zone, forcing customers to shift workloads to other regions.
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Amazon Web Services (AWS) has reportedly been unable to restore access to its cloud-computing facility in Bahrain and one of three data-hosting zones in the United Arab Emirates after the sites were damaged during the Iran war.
AWS said the damage in Bahrain affected multiple “Availability Zones” — clusters of one or more data centres within the same geographic region, Reuters reported.
“The damage to our infrastructure spanned multiple Availability Zones and exceeded what our regional and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand,” the company said in the update.
AWS added that it was helping customers in Bahrain re-establish operations in other regions as recovery efforts continued.
The disruption comes after AWS facilities in Bahrain and the UAE were affected by incidents linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Earlier, one AWS data centre in the UAE suffered a power outage after unidentified objects struck the facility, creating sparks and triggering a fire. Emergency crews reportedly switched off power to the site and its generators to contain the blaze.
AWS had said that one of its UAE Availability Zones was impacted, while traffic was being diverted to other facilities. The company did not provide an estimate for when electricity would be restored.
Additionally, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had claimed responsibility for an attack on an Amazon AWS building in Bahrain. The claim came days after Iran warned that it could target US companies operating in the Gulf.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry had earlier said civil defence teams were dealing with a fire at a company facility following what authorities described as an Iranian attack.
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AWS is Amazon’s cloud-computing division and operates data-centre clusters across multiple global regions. The company has advised customers with workloads in affected areas to migrate them to alternate AWS regions.
The Bahrain disruption marks a significant setback for customers relying on the region’s cloud infrastructure, as AWS has said the damage exceeded what its normal regional and multi-Availability Zone protections were designed to withstand.
