AWS UAE data center hit by military strikes, causing outages across the region

(Image credit: Future / Mike Moore)

AWS Middle East Central Availability Zone struck by "objects"
The data center caught fire and had to have its power removed
Amazon is still waiting for power connection before it can issue a fix

One of Amazon's UAE-based data centers has been struck in the ongoing conflict unfolding in the region, causing the Middle East Central mec1-az2 Availability Zone to experience some outages.

The local fire department was called to extinguish the fire, shutting off mains power and generators to isolate the issue as a resolution plays out.

AWS is currently waiting for permission to restore power to the center, after which point restoration could still take several hours.

Middle East strikes hit AWS data center

"At around 4:30 AM PST [on Sunday March 1], one of our Availability Zones (mec1-az2) was impacted by objects that struck the data center, creating sparks and fire," the company said, neither confirming not denying that the strike was related to conflict in the region.

"The other AZs in the region are functioning normally," however customers have reported issues with EC2 networking APIs. Though multiple Zones within a Region are designed to support each other, providing some sort of redundancy in the event of a blackout, some systems can still be affected.

"Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon S3 are also experiencing significant error rates and elevated latencies," Amazon's service health page adds.

Full details at the time of writing show only EC2 as being 'disrupted' but six further services are 'degraded' and 78 are 'impacted', leaving just six 'resolved'.

While a fix is issued, AWS is recommending that customers "failover, and backup any critical data, to another AWS Region."

The company is currently issuing regular updates on its service health page, but for now at least, it looks like the disruptions continue.

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With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the decarbonisation of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value!

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