AWS Bahrain cloud services face disruption due to drone incident

Share this article Copy Link Share on X Share on Linkedin Share on Facebook The AWS Middle East (Bahrain) Region comprises three availability zones. Credit: Michael Vi/Shutterstock.com.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a disruption in its Bahrain cloud region on Monday following reports of drone activity tied to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, reported Reuters. An Amazon spokesperson stated that the company is supporting customers as they migrate to other AWS regions while recovery efforts continue. In a statement on Monday night, Amazon said: “As this situation evolves and, as we have advised before, we request those with workloads in the affected regions continue ‌to ⁠migrate to other locations.” No further information was provided regarding the scale of the damage or a timeline for restoration. This marks the second instance since the escalation of conflict between the US, Israel and Iran that drones have impacted AWS infrastructure in Bahrain. Earlier this month, AWS reported power outages affecting its data centres in both Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). On 1 March, unidentified objects triggered a fire at an AWS facility in the UAE, prompting a power shutdown as emergency crews responded. That incident coincided with reports of missile and drone attacks across several countries, including the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. AWS said the fire affected only one availability zone in the UAE, and that its other data centres continued operating normally. At the time, AWS advised customers experiencing connectivity issues to switch to alternative regions while it worked to resolve the network disruptions. The company also acknowledged issues at its Bahrain site earlier this month without specifying causes linked to regional hostilities. The AWS Middle East (Bahrain) Region comprises three availability zones and supports numerous businesses and government clients. The continued disruptions underscore the risks facing cloud infrastructure operating in regions affected by armed conflict. Globally, AWS maintains 123 groups of data centres across 39 regions. Sign up for our regular news round-up! Give your business an edge with our leading Tech Monitor Sign up News Vanta introduces automation tools to streamline enterprise compliance Comment Pearson CTO has the solution to the AI productivity gap News Accenture partners with Databricks on scaling enterprise AI solutions News IBM completes $11bn Confluent acquisition