The incidents happened on Sunday (01.03.26) morning, when Amazon’s cloud division reported that “objects” had struck one of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates, creating “sparks and fire”.
The company has also said it was investigating power and connectivity problems at a facility in Bahrain and confirmed the disruption had been caused by drone strikes.
Amazon Web Services – the world’s largest cloud computing provider – said two of its facilities in the UAE were hit directly, while a drone strike near a site in Bahrain caused damage to nearby infrastructure.
The attacks came as Iran launched waves of missiles and drones at US bases and allied targets across the region following military strikes against Iran by the United States and Israel.
Amazon Web Services said the attacks caused physical damage to its facilities and disrupted power supplies.
The company said in the UAE, two facilities were directly struck, and added “while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impacts to our infrastructure.”
The company added the drones damaged buildings and triggered safety systems within the facilities.
Amazon Web Services said the drones caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to infrastructure “and in some cases, required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage.”
Amazon Web Services said it was working to restore services in affected regions but warned recovery could take time because of the extent of the physical damage.
The company said it was moving to stabilise affected systems while engineers assessed the facilities.
Amazon Web Services also advised customers operating in the region to take precautionary measures.
The company recommended businesses using its services back up their data and “potentially migrate workloads” to alternative Amazon Web Services facilities elsewhere in the world.
The company also warned the Iran conflict could continue to disrupt technology infrastructure in the region.
Amazon Web Services said “the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable”.
Donald Trump, 79, the US president, has said the military strikes against Iran could last several weeks.
He added the operations could continue for “four to five weeks” but could “go far longer”.
Technology companies have invested heavily in the Middle East in recent years as governments in the region push to expand artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure.
