Amazon’s cloud operation in Bahrain damaged in Iran strike: Report

ISTANBUL

Amazon’s cloud computing operation in Bahrain was damaged in an Iranian strike, according to a report Wednesday by the Financial Times, which cited someone familiar with the matter.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said earlier that civil defense teams were “extinguishing a fire in a facility of a company as a result of the Iranian aggression,” but did not identify the company or provide details on the extent of the damage. Amazon declined to comment on any specific strike, according to the report.

The attack is the latest sign that the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran is spilling into the Gulf’s commercial technology infrastructure.

The development came one day after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened to target major US technology companies operating in the Middle East, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Apple, widening concerns that digital and economic assets may increasingly come into the line of fire.

Amazon said on March 2 that two of its data center facilities in the United Arab Emirates and one in Bahrain sustained physical impacts from drone strikes.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched its Middle East (Bahrain) Region in July 2019 as its first cloud region in the Middle East. AWS said the Bahrain region consists of three Availability Zones and serves customers seeking lower-latency cloud infrastructure in the region.​​​​​​​