AWS data centre outages confirmed: Drone attacks take down 3 Amazon sites in Gulf region

On March 1, Amazon Web Services (AWS) acknowledged that one of its data centers had been impacted by an object, resulting in sparks and fire within the facility. The following day, the technology powerhouse confirmed that three of its locations were compromised due to a drone attack originating from Iran, affecting both facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one in Bahrain. The AWS health dashboard indicated that both the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region (ME-CENTRAL-1) and the AWS Middle East (Bahrain) Region (ME-SOUTH-1) were experiencing significant impairments. The drone strikes directly hit two locations in the UAE, while the facility in Bahrain faced disruptions due to the nearby attacks. AWS reported that the ongoing tensions in the Middle East have led to unpredictable operational conditions. The company detailed the aftermath of the strikes, noting that they caused structural damage, disrupted power supply to essential infrastructure, and necessitated fire suppression measures that further contributed to water damage. As a result, AWS customers are currently experiencing increased error rates and reduced availability across a range of services, including Amazon EC2, S3, DynamoDB, and Lambda, among others that support storage, processing, and analytics. While AWS is actively working to restore services, the company has warned that recovery efforts may be lengthy due to the extent of the physical damage. It plans to implement software-based recovery solutions that do not depend on the damaged facilities. An update on the recovery efforts is expected by midnight, though ongoing regional conflict may complicate operations further. Customers have also been advised of potential delays in service delivery within the Gulf region.