Widespread digital disruptions have hit the UAE after reported missile and drone strikes caused physical damage to Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in the country, knocking several major banking and consumer platforms offline.
The strikes impacted AWS’s ME-CENTRAL-1 cloud region beginning March 1, damaging infrastructure and triggering power outages, fires and water damage from suppression systems. Two of the region’s three availability zones — mec1-az2 and mec1-az3 — remain severely impaired, while mec1-az1 continues operating with limited cross-zone stability.
AWS confirmed the disruption was geopolitical in nature rather than a technical malfunction, advising customers to reroute workloads to alternative regions where possible. No definitive timeline for full restoration has been provided.
Banking Platforms Hit
Among the most affected institutions is Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), whose digital banking services — including its mobile application and online portal — went offline. Customers have reported being unable to access accounts, transfer funds or complete online payments. The bank has directed urgent transactions to physical branches.
In contrast, banking apps from Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Mashreq reported minimal disruption, citing distributed cloud infrastructure across multiple regions.
Food Delivery and E-Commerce Disrupted
Major consumer platforms have also been affected. Talabat users reported order tracking failures and rider allocation issues, while Noon experienced checkout errors and app loading problems.
Careem’s food delivery services logged payment failures and delays, though its ride-hailing operations remain partially functional. Deliveroo also reported processing and tracking delays.
Hundreds of smaller fintech apps, e-commerce platforms and UAE-based government portals hosted on AWS infrastructure have returned server errors or experienced degraded performance.
What Remains Operational
Global platforms with multi-region redundancy appear unaffected. Services including WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, as well as Google and Microsoft cloud services, are operating normally.
A Different Kind of Outage
Industry analysts note that unlike routine AWS disruptions linked to software misconfigurations or server overloads, this incident stems from direct physical damage to infrastructure. Standard failover mechanisms are less effective when entire facilities are compromised.
Launched in 2022, the AWS ME-CENTRAL-1 region had become a cornerstone of Gulf digital transformation, hosting critical financial and government workloads. The current disruption highlights vulnerabilities when geopolitical risks intersect with centralized cloud infrastructure.
Residents facing app failures have been advised to try alternative internet connections and monitor official service status pages. For urgent banking or payment needs, physical branch visits remain the most reliable option until digital services are fully restored.
