Amazon Web Services (AWS) has confirmed the permanent loss of some customer data following Iranian drone strikes that damaged multiple data centers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The acknowledgment came in an update posted on September 15, stating that the company was "unable to restore access to the resources and data" in certain war-affected data centers. This incident follows the initial strikes on March 1, which occurred during the ongoing conflict that began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
The data loss specifically affected one of three AWS availability zones in the UAE, known as mec1-az2. AWS is currently working to recover resources in the other two availability zones in the UAE and is replacing "affected infrastructure" while promising updates on service restoration in the coming months. However, the situation appears more severe in Bahrain, where AWS reported that it could not restore access to resources across all three availability zones.
According to the AWS update, "The damage to our infrastructure spanned multiple availability zones and exceeded what our regional and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand." In response to the strikes, AWS had previously suspended customer billing in the affected regions and advised customers to migrate resources to other cloud regions and utilize remote backups.
The Iranian drone strikes included a follow-up attack on April 1, which targeted the data centers in Bahrain, and a missile strike by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on July 24, which specifically aimed at a remaining Amazon data center structure in Bahrain. This damage was confirmed by satellite imagery.
AWS has issued $150 million in customer credits following the initial attacks and remains committed to supporting customers in Bahrain, with plans to provide further updates in early 2027. The ongoing conflict has also contributed to a broader regional crisis, impacting global energy markets and increasing interest in renewable energy sources.