Amazon Web Services has said that it will be unable to restore operations at one of its three UAE data hosting zones and its Bahrain network after they were damaged by Iranian attacks.
The conclusion was made after "thorough assessments", and authorities in the Gulf nations have been notified, the Seattle-based subsidiary of the world's biggest e-commerce platform said on its Health Dashboard site on Tuesday.
"We have determined that we are unable to restore access to the resources and data hosted exclusively" in the UAE zone and Bahrain, AWS said, though customer support will remain available to help users migrate to alternate regions.
"Since the disruption began in March, most customers have been able to re-establish their operations in other regions by restoring backups or copying data that remained accessible," it said of the affected UAE zone.
The US and Israel began their offensive against Iran on February 28. AWS currently has nine sites in the Middle East – three each in the UAE, Bahrain and Israel, with three more to be opened in Saudi Arabia, according to its website.
The scene in Bahrain is trickier, as the damage to AWS's infrastructure spanned several zones and "exceeded what our regional and multi-availability zones services are designed to withstand". AWS services in the kingdom were disrupted twice in March, while another of its zones was hit in April.
"We have supported the remaining customers in re-establishing their operations in alternate regions, using backups where available or implementing alternative solutions to mitigate the impact of inaccessible data," AWS said. An update to the Bahrain situation is expected in early 2027, it added. It did not provide a timeline for the UAE.
"In parallel, we assessed all affected infrastructure and exhausted every option for restoring data and resources that had not been migrated before the region became unavailable."
AWS's next steps in rebuilding the damaged sites are unclear. The National reached out to the company's representatives in the UAE, but was referred to the Health Dashboard site.
The Iran war has resulted in major disruptions in several industries, from energy to infrastrucutre, as Tehran attacked key industrial infrastructure across US-allied states in the Gulf.
Governments and companies in the affected nations, however, have been quick to respond to the attacks, although a number of strikes have caused longer-term damage, such as those to the UAE's Emirates Global Aluminium and QatarEnergy. Companies are ensuring the continuation of their operations while prioritising the safety of their staff.
Cuts to technology services are one of the most disruptive and costliest. Last October, AWS suffered a major global outage that knocked out a chunk of the internet.
"We remain committed to supporting our customers in the UAE and Bahrain," AWS said.
