Asger Risom
An AWS data center in the UAE was taken offline after being struck by unspecified “objects,” sparking a fire and forcing a power shutdown. The disruption comes amid escalating military exchanges across the Middle East, though AWS has not confirmed what hit the facility.
An Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center in the United Arab Emirates was knocked offline Sunday after being struck by what the company described only as “objects,” sparking a fire and cutting power to the facility.
AWS said one of its Availability Zones in the UAE was impacted around 7:30 a.m. ET. The incident caused “sparks and fire,” prompting local fire crews to shut off power to the facility and its backup generators while extinguishing the blaze.
The company did not specify what the “objects” were.
Connectivity disruption spreads
An Availability Zone can include one or more data centers within a region. AWS operates three Availability Zones in the UAE.
Following the fire, customers began reporting connectivity issues. AWS later said that other services in the region were experiencing elevated error rates and latency.
Early Monday, the company added that a separate “localized power issue” had affected another Availability Zone in the Middle East.
“Other AWS services, such as DynamoDB and S3, are also experiencing significant error rates and latencies,” AWS said in an update. “We are actively working to restore power and connectivity… As of this time, we expect recovery is multiple hours away.”
By Sunday evening, AWS reported “significant signs of recovery” for some systems but said power had not yet been fully restored at the impacted site. The company did not provide an estimated timeline for complete recovery and advised customers to use alternate Availability Zones or other AWS regions if possible.
Incident unfolds amid regional conflict
The fire occurred against the backdrop of escalating military exchanges in the region. U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran were followed by retaliatory attacks targeting multiple Gulf states.
Over the weekend, photos and videos circulated online showing missiles streaking across skies in parts of the UAE. Debris from intercepted projectiles reportedly caused fires and damage across several locations, including areas near major landmarks and transportation hubs.
AWS did not confirm whether the data center was directly struck by military hardware or debris related to the conflict. The company’s statement referred only to “objects” impacting the facility.
A reminder of physical risks to cloud infrastructure
While cloud services are often viewed as abstract and distributed, they ultimately depend on physical infrastructure — power systems, cooling equipment, and hardened facilities that can still be vulnerable to environmental or geopolitical events.
Major cloud providers typically design regions with multiple Availability Zones precisely to limit the impact of a single-site disruption. However, when power loss or regional instability affects multiple zones, outages can cascade.
The UAE region serves businesses across the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Europe. Prolonged downtime could affect enterprises relying on the region for storage, compute, and database services.
AWS has not reported any injuries connected to the incident.
Sources: Amazon Web Services status updates, company statements, regional reporting
