Amazon Data Centres Drone Strikes Impact Financial Institutions
Amazon said on Monday that drone strikes damaged some of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, disrupting cloud services and extending recovery timelines.
Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Gulf states in retaliation for United States and Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday. As a result, the regional conflict has now affected critical technology infrastructure.
A strike on a facility in the UAE marks the first time military action has disrupted a major United States technology company’s data centre. Consequently, the incident has raised concerns about the rapid expansion of large technology firms across the region.
Damage To UAE And Bahrain Facilities
In the UAE, two facilities sustained direct hits, while in Bahrain, a drone strike near a site caused physical damage to infrastructure. Amazon Web Services said the strikes caused structural harm and disrupted power delivery systems.
Moreover, the damage triggered fire suppression measures in certain areas, which led to additional water damage. Therefore, engineers must address both structural and operational issues before restoring full functionality.
AWS stated that it is working to restore services as quickly as possible. However, it warned that recovery will likely take longer because of the extent of the physical damage.
Earlier, AWS had reported that unidentified objects caused a fire on Sunday. Authorities then cut power to a cluster of data centres in the UAE. At that time, the company expected restoration to take at least a day.
Financial Institutions Affected
The outage disrupted a dozen core cloud services. As a result, financial institutions that rely on AWS experienced service interruptions. One person familiar with the matter said the disruption affected institutions using AWS infrastructure, although they declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.
AWS advised customers to back up critical data and shift operations to unaffected regions. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank said its platforms and mobile application were unavailable because of a region wide IT disruption. However, the bank did not directly link its outage to the AWS incident.
Furthermore, AWS noted that the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable due to the ongoing conflict.
UAE Positioned As Regional AI Hub
United States technology companies have positioned the UAE as a regional hub for artificial intelligence computing. These facilities support services such as ChatGPT and other advanced applications.
In November, Microsoft said it plans to increase its total investment in the UAE to 15 billion dollars by the end of 2029. Additionally, it intends to use Nvidia chips in its regional data centres.
A Washington based think tank recently warned that adversaries who once targeted oil infrastructure could now focus on digital infrastructure. Therefore, data centres and energy systems that support computing may face greater risk during conflicts.
Microsoft, Google and Oracle, which also operate facilities in the UAE, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
With inputs from Reuters
