Amazon says damaged UAE cloud region recovery to take several months

DUBAI - Amazon said on Thursday that restoring cloud computing operations in the United Arab Emirates, which were damaged in the conflict in the Middle East, is expected to take several months.

Amazon's data centers in the region were hit by Iranian drone strikes in early March, amid the conflict, disrupting cloud services and making a recovery "prolonged".

When asked if the latest update is related to a new incident, an Amazon spokesperson said that the latest update dated April 30 relates to the previous operational issues in March.

Amazon Web Services is the world's largest cloud computing provider, serving a global client base. Its key customers include companies such as Netflix, BMW and Pfizer, as well as major financial institutions, media groups and public sector organisations.

It is also the company's main driver of profits.

AWS recommended customers migrate all accessible resources to other regions and restore inaccessible resources from remote backups as soon as possible, according to the status update posted to its website on Thursday.

The AWS status page shows that 37 services in the United Arab Emirates have been listed as disrupted as of the week of April 30. Several of these services have been disrupted since early March, according to the status page.

The firm said that the damage suffered to its operations in the UAE has led to a suspension of billing operations in the region.

Reuters reported last month that Amazon's cloud region in Bahrain had been "disrupted" due to drone activity in the area.