Overview
- Iranian drones hit three AWS data centers on March 1 in the UAE and Bahrain, cutting off services for banks, fintech apps, and ride-hailing platforms across the region.
- AWS reports its Bahrain region remains disrupted, and an AWS status tracker as of April 7 shows uneven performance across the two Gulf hubs.
- Iran has threatened further action against U.S.-linked tech sites, naming Abu Dhabi’s $30 billion Stargate AI complex that hosts Nvidia computing clusters and OpenAI systems.
- Huawei Cloud has used the turmoil to urge customers to avoid single-region setups and to adopt multi-cloud designs, positioning itself as a diversification option.
- Gulf governments are ramping up local data centers and AI sites, as experts note that physical damage to power or network links can overwhelm cloud redundancy and that data-residency rules slow cross-border failover.