Stranded Data: AWS Bahrain cloud outage locks out UAE cloud zone
Amazon Web Services cannot restore access to its cloud computing facility in Bahrain and one UAE data-hosting zone following severe infrastructure damage during regional military strikes, the company announced on Tuesday. Affected clients, including regional banking operations, have been forced to migrate workloads to alternative global regions as AWS confirms it has exhausted restoration options for unmigrated data.
Infrastructure Damage Exceeded Multi-Zone Design Limits
The disruption centers on the mec1-az2 availability zone in the UAE, alongside multiple availability zones in Bahrain that sustained physical impacts from missile and drone strikes following US and Israeli attacks on Iran starting in March. Amazon Web Services stated that the infrastructure damage exceeded what its regional and multi-zone services were designed to withstand.
While most Bahrain-based customers migrated their workloads before a second disruption in April rendered that region entirely unavailable, AWS acknowledged it cannot recover remaining non-migrated resources or data hosted exclusively in the affected UAE zone. The company said it has notified relevant authorities in both countries and remains committed to supporting clients using backups and alternative solutions.
AWS will provide further updates on UAE service restoration in the coming months, while a detailed operational update for Bahrain is scheduled for early 2027.
