AWS Data Center In UAE Damaged Amid Regional Strikes

Amazon’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has confirmed that one of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates experienced a temporary power shutdown after debris struck the site on Sunday, igniting sparks and a small fire.

The disruption comes as the UAE confronts the fallout from retaliatory missile and drone attacks launched by Iran, following joint US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets. The reported attacks affected key infrastructure, including airports and ports, as well as some residential districts across the country and parts of the Gulf.

AWS did not indicate whether the data center incident was directly tied to the wider military escalation.

In a company update, AWS stated that at approximately 4:30 a.m. PST, one of its Availability Zones (mec1-az2) sustained impact from external objects, leading to sparks and a fire within the facility.

The company explains that an Availability Zone comprises one or more physically separate data centers within a single AWS Region, designed to operate independently for resilience.

Emergency responders disconnected power to the affected site to contain the fire. AWS said services in the impacted zone could take several hours to return to normal, while other Availability Zones in the UAE remain fully operational.