Drone Strikes Hit AWS Data Centres in UAE and Bahrain
In the context of rising tensions in West Asia, Amazon Web Services reported that drone strikes have caused damage to two of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates and a facility in Bahrain, leading to disruptions in cloud services throughout the region. The company’s latest update reveals that the facilities experienced “physical impacts to infrastructure” due to drone strikes, resulting in structural damage, power disruption, and, in certain instances, fire suppression efforts that caused further water damage. The company stated that it is collaborating closely with local authorities and prioritizing the safety of personnel during the recovery process. AWS reported that two of its three availability zones in the UAE were directly impacted by drone strikes and continue to experience significant impairment. The third zone remains operational, though certain services have experienced indirect impacts. In Bahrain, a nearby strike resulted in physical damage to infrastructure at one of its sites.
On Sunday, AWS reported a disruption to its services following the impact of unidentified objects on one of its data centres in the UAE, which resulted in a fire. However, at that time, it remained uncertain whether the incident was connected to the ongoing conflict in West Asia, as reported. Customers in the UAE and Bahrain regions are currently facing disruptions across various AWS services. These encompass: The company cautioned that recovery is expected to take a considerable amount of time “given the nature of the physical damage involved.” AWS stated it is undertaking simultaneous recovery efforts, encompassing both physical and software-based approaches. As repairs to the damaged infrastructure progress, the company is implementing software mitigations that do not necessitate the facilities being fully operational.
AWS stated, “Restoring S3 and DynamoDB is a priority because many other services depend on them.” Targeted software updates are being implemented to decrease error rates across various impacted services. However, AWS warned that some recovery actions are limited by the physical condition of the facilities, indicating that complete restoration of certain services will necessitate infrastructure repairs. In light of ongoing instability in West Asia, AWS has issued a further warning that operations may remain “unpredictable.”
Meanwhile, AWS urged customers with workloads in the affected regions to back up data immediately, implement their disaster recovery plans, recover from remote backups stored in other regions, update applications to redirect traffic away from impacted areas, and contemplate migrating workloads to alternate AWS regions. The disruption ensued after synchronized airstrikes by the US and Israel targeting various Iranian cities on February 28. The strikes focused on military command centres, air-defence systems, missile sites, and essential regime infrastructure. The strikes also resulted in the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, significantly escalating tensions in the region.
