Sparks and fire were reported at an Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centre in the UAE as a consequence of it being "struck by objects", reliable Arab media reports said. Service disruptions were caused as a result of the incident, which happened on Sunday night amidst the clashes in the Middle East between Iran and the US–Israel alliance. AWS is Amazon's cloud unit.
The fire department rushed to the spot and quickly cut power to the facility before extinguishing the fire.
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However, Amazon did not mention if it was a projectile or debris from an intercepted attack that caused the incident. Chris McGuire, Senior Fellow for China and Emerging Technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said on X: "Assuming this was an Iranian drone strike, it is the first time a commercial data centre was physically targeted in a conflict. It won’t be the last."
"At around 4:30 am PST (4:30 pm UAE time), one of our Availability Zones (mec1-az2) was impacted by objects that struck the data centre, creating sparks and fire. The fire department shut off power to the facility and generators as they worked to put out the fire," an official statement said.
"We are still awaiting permission to turn the power back on, and once we have, we will ensure we restore power and connectivity safely. It will take several hours to restore connectivity to the impacted AZ. The other AZs in the region are functioning normally," it added.
According to the company’s website, an "Availability Zone" is made up of one or more connected physical data centres. These zones are separate, isolated locations within each AWS Region. As per Reuters, it will take several hours to restore connectivity in the affected zone, the data centre operator said, adding that other zones in the UAE are operating normally.
Another report said that an AWS data centre in Bahrain also reported power and connectivity issues. According to the Financial Times, the reason behind the issue was not immediately identified.
There were loud blasts in Dubai and Samha in the UAE, and in Doha, the capital of Qatar. In the first strike to reach US allies in Europe, a drone hit Britain's Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus overnight. The UAE announced the closure of its embassy in Tehran and the withdrawal of its ambassador from Iran, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, in the wake of Iranian attacks on the Gulf country.
