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Amazon flags AWS disruption in Bahrain after drone activity

Cloud disruption in Bahrain pushes firms to shift workloads amid conflict risks

Last updated: March 24, 2026 | 09:44

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

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Dubai: Amazon has confirmed that its cloud infrastructure in Bahrain has been disrupted following drone activity.

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The company said its Amazon Web Services region in Bahrain was affected amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, marking another instance of critical infrastructure facing strain.

Customers moved to alternate regions

Amazon said it is actively shifting workloads to maintain continuity for clients, though it has not disclosed the scale of the disruption or a timeline for full recovery.

“As this situation evolves and, as we have advised before, we request those with workloads in the affected regions continue to migrate to other locations,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.

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Why this matters for UAE users

AWS forms the backbone of a wide range of services, from banking platforms and e-commerce systems to government operations. Any disruption, even if contained geographically, can ripple across interconnected systems and affect users beyond Bahrain.

Businesses in the UAE that rely on AWS may not face direct outages but could experience slower performance or temporary adjustments as traffic is redirected to other regions.

Second hit in weeks

This is the second disruption linked to the conflict in recent weeks. Earlier incidents had already affected AWS facilities in Bahrain and the UAE through power-related issues, prompting recovery efforts.

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With uncertainty still surrounding the situation and no clear recovery timeline, businesses are likely to remain on alert, prioritising continuity planning while monitoring further developments closely.

- With inputs from Reuters.

Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.