Amazon’s cloud unit reports fire after objects hit UAE data center

Amazon cloud unit’s data centers ​in Bahrain and the United ‌Arab Emirates were facing connectivity issues ​on Monday, the ⁠company said, amid retaliatory Iranian strikes in the region in response ‌to U.S. and Israeli strikes on the Islamic ‌Republic.

Iranian strikes have hit ‌airports, ⁠ports, and residential areas across ⁠the wider Gulf.

One of the cloud unit AWS’ zones in ​the UAE was ‌still without power on Monday, after the company said that “objects” struck the data center and ‌created sparks and fire.

Amazon ​reported some recovery in the UAE but ⁠recommended that customers use alternate regions as it investigates “additional connectivity ‌issues and error rates.”

The company did not confirm or deny, when asked earlier, whether the UAE data center incident was connected ‌to the Iranian strikes.

Amazon did not provide ​a reason for the connectivity issues at its Bahrain ⁠data center. It also did ⁠not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

This article was updated to reflect the latest information

• AWS said: “At around 4:30 AM ‌PST, one of our Availability Zones (mec1-az2) ​was impacted by objects that struck the data center, ⁠creating sparks and fire.”

• According to the company’s website, an “Availability Zone” is ‌made up of one or more connected physical data centers. These zones are separate, isolated locations within each AWS Region.

• Fire department cut power to the ‌facility while crews worked to extinguish the ​fire, AWS said.

• It will take several hours to ⁠restore connectivity in the affected zone, the ⁠data center operator said, adding that other zones in the ‌UAE are operating normally