Power to Amazon’s cloud unit’s, Amazon Web Services Availability Zone (AWS), data centre in the United Arab Emirates was temporarily shut down after objects hit the facility. The incident is said to have triggered sparks and subsequently a fire at the location as the US, Israel and Iran are embroiled in an open war, as per a Reuters report.
What AWS said about the UAE data centre outage
The company has yet to confirm or deny whether the incident at the data centre was connected to the current war-focussed airstrikes, as per Reuters.
“At around 4:30 AM PST, one of our Availability Zones (mec1-az2) was impacted by objects that struck the data center, creating sparks and fire,” AWS said.
As of now, the latest update in the report indicated that the fire department cut power to the facility while crews were working to contain the fire. According to the data centre operator, restoring connectivity in the impacted zone will take several hours. Meanwhile, other zones in the UAE are operating normally, reported Reuters.
An “Availability Zone” comprises one or more connected physical data centres, as per the company website. They are separate, isolated locations within each AWS Region.
Chris McGuire, who is a senior fellow for China and emerging technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on X: “Reuters reports that an object struck an AWS data center in the UAE, causing a fire and shutting it down. Assuming this was an Iranian drone strike, it is the first time a commercial data center was physically targeted in a conflict. It won’t be the last.”
Reuters reports that an object struck an AWS data center in the UAE, causing a fire and shutting it down. Assuming this was an Iranian drone strike, it is the first time a commercial data center was physically targeted in a conflict. It won’t be the last.https://t.co/4b7DHklwoU
— Chris McGuire (@ChrisRMcGuire) March 1, 2026
The news comes as the UAE is grappling with the ravages of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, which have left several landmarks, ports, residential areas and ports across Gulf countries damaged.
AWS Bahrain also reports outage
Hours after the UAE facility suffered an outage, Amazon’s cloud unit AWS data centre in Bahrain also reported power and connectivity issues. reason behind the issue wasn’t immediately identified.
This is a developing story.