Iranian drone strikes on Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres in the Middle East are causing prolonged disruption to cloud infrastructure used by retailers, logistics platforms and digital marketplaces across the region.
Three facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were damaged, with recovery expected to take several months.
Amazon has paused billing for affected customers and urged companies to shift workloads to other regions while repairs continue. For global retail businesses relying on cloud computing, the incident highlights new operational risks linked to geopolitical instability.
Cloud disruption hits retail operations
The drone strikes disrupted core AWS services, including computing, storage and databases widely used by e-commerce platforms and retail apps.
Retail-linked services in the Gulf were among those affected. Companies using AWS reported outages and slower performance, with some forced to move operations overnight to alternative regions.
Amazon said the facilities “suffered damage as a result of the conflict”, leaving some systems unable to support customer applications.
For retailers, this translated into interruptions in online ordering, payments and fulfilment systems that depend on cloud availability. The incident also affected platforms offering grocery delivery, ride-hailing and marketplace services, all of which rely on real-time data processing.
Physical damage and long recovery
Two AWS data centres in the UAE were directly hit, while a third site in Bahrain was damaged by a nearby strike.
Amazon reported “structural damage” and disruption to power systems. Fire suppression systems activated during the incident caused additional water damage, while some server racks were taken offline.
The company expects repairs to take months, pointing to the scale of the physical impact.
AWS advised customers to “migrate resources to other cloud regions” and restore systems from backups where needed.
This type of disruption is unusual for cloud providers, which are typically designed to withstand technical faults. The event shows that physical infrastructure remains vulnerable in conflict zones.
Wider impact on retail and supply chains
The disruption is affecting more than IT systems. Cloud outages in the Middle East have implications for retail supply chains, cross-border trade and last-mile delivery operations.
Retailers using cloud-based inventory, payments and customer data systems may face delays, particularly in markets that depend on regional data hosting. Some businesses have already shifted digital operations to Europe or Asia to maintain continuity.
The incident is also prompting a review of risk strategies. Data centre developers and technology firms are reassessing investment plans in the region, citing concerns over “uninsurable war damage” and ongoing instability.
For the global retail industry, the strikes underline the importance of multi-region cloud strategies and backup systems. As digital commerce becomes more dependent on cloud infrastructure, resilience planning is moving higher on the agenda for retailers operating in or serving the Middle East.
