Amazon Web Services Faces UAE Outage After Mysterious ‘Objects’ Strike Data Centre

AWS reported an outage in the UAE after ‘objects’ hit one of its data centres, causing a fire and service disruption. Recovery efforts are underway as services gradually return online.

AWS facility fire happened during ongoing military tensions in the Middle East.

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• Fire at UAE AWS data center sparks regional connectivity issues.
• Objects struck facility, causing sparks, fire, and power shutdown.
• Outage coincided with heightened regional missile activity and tensions.

Amazon Data Centre UAE: A fire broke out at an Amazon Web Services data centre in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, causing connectivity issues across the region. AWS confirmed that one of its Availability Zones was impacted after objects hit the facility around 7:30 a.m. ET, leading to sparks and a fire. Power was shut down while emergency teams controlled the situation. 

The outage happened during heightened regional tensions, as military strikes and missile interceptions were reported across parts of the Gulf, including the UAE.

Amazon Web Services UAE Data Centre Fire Causes Major AWS Outage

Amazon Web Services said the disruption started after “objects” struck one of its UAE Availability Zones. The company did not clarify what those objects were. The impact created sparks and triggered a fire inside the facility. 

Firefighters shut off power and generators to control the blaze, which caused service interruptions for customers in that zone.

AWS has three Availability Zones in the UAE, and one zone can include multiple data centres. When one zone goes down, it can affect websites, apps, and digital services that rely only on that specific infrastructure. 

By Sunday evening, AWS said it was seeing “significant signs of recovery” in some systems, but full power had not yet been restored.

The company advised customers to switch to alternate Availability Zones or even other AWS Regions, where possible, to reduce downtime.

UAE AWS Outage Linked To Regional Missile Activity And Gulf Tensions

The AWS facility fire happened during ongoing military tensions in the Middle East. The incident came amid US and Israeli strikes on Iran and reported retaliatory attacks by Iran. 

Over the weekend, videos showed missiles crossing the skies above Dubai. Debris from intercepted missiles reportedly caused damage and fires in different parts of the region.

Landmarks, including luxury properties on Palm Jumeirah, parts of Dubai International Airport, and the Burj Al-Arab, were said to have faced impact from falling debris.

While AWS has not officially linked the fire to the regional missile activity, the timing has raised concerns. As of Sunday night, the company said there was no clear timeline for full power restoration. Customers are now closely monitoring updates as services gradually return online.

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