AWS “unable to restore access” to data centers hit by Iran strikes

Amazon Web Services will not be reopening the data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain that were attacked by Iran.

The cloud giant this week provided a status update regarding its Middle East (UAE) (me-central-1) and Middle East (Bahrain) (me-south-1) regions.

“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 said. “We continue to work on recovering regional resources, as well as zonal resources hosted in the other affected Availability Zones (mec1-az1 and mec1-az3).”

Regarding the Bahrain region, it said: “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.”

Amazon said it remained “committed” to supporting customers in the UAE and Bahrain.

“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 updates around its plans in Bahrain in early 2027.

Amazon’s UAE and Bahrain facilities “suffered damage due to the conflict in the Middle East” in early March at the outbreak of the US-Israel bombing of Iran.

Iranian drones began bombing targets in neighboring countries early on during the conflict, including Amazon’s data centers. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed a second attack on AWS’ Bahrain region in July.

AWS opened its Bahrain region in 2019, with the UAE region coming in 2022.

Several data centers in Iran and a SES satellite ground station facility in Israel have also been struck during the conflict.