AWS Cannot Restore Access to Some Data in Bahrain and the UAE

AWS data recovery has been significantly limited after physical infrastructure damage during the conflict. In a status update dated September 15, Amazon Web Services said it cannot restore access to resources and data hosted exclusively in the Middle East (Bahrain) region. The same applies to resources and data stored exclusively in Availability Zone mec1-az2 in the Middle East (UAE) region.

The company also said that recovery of other affected zones and regional resources is continuing in the UAE. Reuters independently confirmed the content of AWS’s September status update and wrote that most customers had already restored operations in other regions.

AWS data recovery after physical damage

According to AWS, multiple Availability Zones in Bahrain were physically damaged. The extent of the damage, according to the company, exceeded the resilience limits of its regional and multi-AZ services. An Availability Zone is a separate data center location within a cloud region; multi-AZ configurations are designed to maintain operations during an outage at one zonal location.

In this case, however, the damage affected multiple zones in one region. AWS therefore cannot make data and resources accessible again if customers kept them only in the Bahrain region. In the UAE, according to the status update, the unrecoverable access concerns one of the three zones, mec1-az2. The status of the other affected zones and regional services remains under recovery.

AWS publicly confirmed in March that its infrastructure had been physically damaged following drone attacks in the UAE and Bahrain. At the time, it advised customers to migrate their operations to other regions. In its March announcement, the company referred to attacks and the conflict but did not publicly directly attribute responsibility to any specific state or group.

This does not automatically mean the loss of all customer data

AWS’s September wording means that the company cannot restore access to data and resources stored exclusively in the affected region or zone. Publicly available information does not yet indicate the exact number of affected customers, the volume of data, or the extent of services containing irreplaceable content.

It has also not been confirmed that all data belonging to affected customers has been permanently lost. Organizations may have created backups, replicas, or other copies outside Bahrain and outside mec1-az2. Such external copies may enable the recovery of data or services, although not directly from AWS’s damaged infrastructure.

The distinction between service availability and data recoverability is significant in this case. A customer may move an application to another region, but without a backup or replication outside the affected location, its original data or configurations may not be available.

What the case means for backups outside the region

The case is among the unusual situations in which physical damage affected multiple Availability Zones in one cloud region and exceeded regional redundancy. High availability distributed only among zones within a single region may therefore not cover extensive physical damage associated with a war.

For operators of critical systems, this case underscores the importance of backups and disaster recovery plans outside a single region. Regularly checking whether backups are usable and whether applications can be launched from an alternative location is also relevant.

AWS announced that it would provide further information about Bahrain at the beginning of 2027. In the case of the UAE, it will be important to monitor the recovery status of zones mec1-az1 and mec1-az3, as well as regional resources. It is not yet known whether the company will publish the number of affected customers, the scope of unavailable data, or the terms of any potential compensation.

Verified and updated: 09/17/2026 07:41