Billing for AWS cloud service users in the Middle East is being suspended as conflict recovery efforts drag on.
Amazon’s cloud service clientele will likely face a waiting period of several more months before the US tech firm can get its war-damaged data centers back online and resume standard operations across the Middle East. This announcement follows drone strikes by Iran on three of Amazon’s data centers in the UAE and Bahrain two months prior, suggesting a complete recovery from the cloud service disruption could require close to half a year.
Amazon communicated that the cloud servers located in the UAE and Bahrain “sustained impact from the Middle East conflict” and are currently unable to support customer applications. Furthermore, an update noted that “associated billing operations are presently paused while we work toward restoring normal operation,” a process that “is projected to take several months.”
AWS also issued a “strong” advisory urging customers to migrate their assets to alternative cloud regions and utilize offsite backups to retrieve any “inaccessible resources.” Certain clients, like the Dubai-based super-app Careem—which offers ride-hailing, home services, and food/grocery delivery—managed swift service restoration following an overnight shift to servers in other data center locations.
The timeframe AWS projects for a full cloud service restoration, potentially taking six months, highlights the extent of the damage inflicted by the Iranian drone attacks. Previously, Business Insider obtained an internal document detailing damage at one data center, which included 14 EC2 cloud server racks being disabled, with an additional five server racks also suffering harm.
About the Author
