AWS announced that data recovery in Bahrain is impossible after attacks
- AWS will not be able to recover data in the Bahrain region me‑south‑1.
- The attacks affected several zones in Bahrain and the UAE, related to the US-Israel-Iran conflict.
- Customers have moved workloads to other regions, primarily to Europe.
- AWS plans to update the status of the region in early 2027.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) officially stated that after a series of attacks on its data centers in the Middle East, it is impossible to restore access to resources and data in some availability zones. Damage was inflicted during the escalation of the confrontation between the USA, Israel, and Iran, leading to the shutdown of an entire cloud region.
Affected zones and extent of damage
The first strike hit the availability zone mes1‑az2 in Bahrain in March. After that, AWS recommended that customers move workloads to other regions. Despite this, a second zone was attacked in April, resulting in a complete shutdown of the region me‑south‑1. According to the company, the damage affected several zones, exceeding the capabilities of multi-zone reserves.
At the same time in March and April, zones in the UAE (me‑central‑1): the zones mec1‑az2 и mec1‑az3 sustained serious damage, while mec1‑az1 were only partially affected. Iran also publicly threatened an attack on the under-construction data center 'Stargate' in the UAE.
Current recovery status
AWS reports that recovery of access to data stored exclusively in the region me‑south‑1, is not possible. The company continues to work on restoring operations in the zones mec1‑az1 и mec1‑az3, however, most customers have already switched to backups or migrated data to other regions, primarily to Europe.
AWS support remains available to assist customers in migrating applications and workloads. Regarding the fate of the completely shut down region me‑south‑1 , the company promises to provide a new statement in early 2027, although recovery seems unlikely after Iran announced a renewed strike on the Bahrain data center during the summer.
Recommendations and financial plans
Technology companies, including AWS, advise distributing resources not only across multiple zones within a region but also across different geographical regions to reduce the risk of large-scale failures. The most reliable option is considered to be migration to European clouds, where the infrastructure is less susceptible to geopolitical pressure.
According to Amazon, the company's capital expenditures are planned to be at $220 billion in 2026, primarily for the construction of new data centers in the U.S. and beyond. These investments are aimed at strengthening the global network and reducing vulnerability to such incidents.
Source: 3DNews
