AWS outage due to drone attacks in UAE

Source: Hacker News

Incident Overview

Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported that drones struck three of its facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain following U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran over the weekend.

The incidents occurred on Sunday morning. AWS initially said “objects” had hit a data centre in the UAE, creating “sparks and fire,” and that it was investigating power and connectivity issues at a facility in Bahrain. On Monday, the company confirmed that drone strikes caused the outages.

Impact

• Two UAE facilities were hit directly.
• In Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to a facility caused physical impacts to AWS infrastructure.
• The drones caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery, and in some cases required fire‑suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage.

AWS Response

• AWS is working quickly to restore services to the affected areas, noting that recovery may take time given the nature of the physical damage.
• Customers using AWS services in the region are advised to back up their data and potentially migrate workloads to alternative AWS facilities elsewhere in the world.
• AWS warned that the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable due to the ongoing conflict.

Wider Context

President Donald Trump has indicated that U.S. strikes on Iran could last four to five weeks but might “go far longer.” Iran has been launching waves of missiles and drones against U.S. bases and allies across the region, including the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.