Customer Data Permanently Lost in Iran Strikes on Amazon Data Centers

Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a catastrophic data loss following Iranian strikes on its data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, according to an AWS dashboard update on September 15. The attacks resulted in the permanent loss of customer data in the mec1-az2 availability zone located in the UAE region, and the destruction was so severe that AWS was unable to restore access to resources and data in all three availability zones in Bahrain.

AWS has been working to recover regional resources and restore services in the coming months, but the extent of the damage was far greater than what their regional and multi-AZ services were designed to withstand. The company had already suspended customer billing in the affected regions and had spent the past six months trying to restore normal operations.

AWS had initially urged customers to migrate their resources to other cloud regions and use remote backups to restore any inaccessible resources. The company also provided $150 million in customer credits following the initial Iranian strikes in March. Despite the ongoing conflict, AWS remains committed to supporting its customers in Bahrain in the long term and will provide further updates in early 2027.