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Earlier this week, Iranian drones hit three Amazon Web Services (AWS) facilities<\/a> in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, triggering global outages in online services. Experts believe the strikes were the first instance of American big tech companies being targeted in a military operation.<\/p>\n The strikes caused \u201cstructural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage,\u201d the tech giant admitted in a March 2 update<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iranian Revolutionary Guard-affiliated news claimed that Iran had targeted both Amazon and Microsoft facilities, as the Financial Times reports<\/a>, though the latter has yet to experience any outages in the region.<\/p>\n The incidents highlight how data centers have become major targets on the battlefield. The surrounding region in the Middle East has been a major draw for US hyperscalers, as CNBC points out<\/a>, which could mean that even more American assets are at risk.<\/p>\n Escalating the stakes is the rise of AI, which requires powerful data centers that have already emerged<\/a> as flashpoints of controversy far from any theater of war. Companies including OpenAI, Oracle, and Nvidia have announced major investments in the UAE, including major data centers and a sprawling \u201cAI campus<\/a>\u201d as part of president Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cStargate\u201d push, a troubled<\/a> $500 billion initiative announced<\/a> almost immediately following his inauguration.<\/p>\n \u201cIran and proxies have targeted oil fields in the past, but their attacks this week on UAE data centers show they are now considered critical infrastructure,\u201d executive director of the geopolitical unit at advisory Hilco Global, Patrick Murphy, told CNBC.<\/p>\n The strikes also highlight the growing demand for infrastructure security to keep operations online, which according to Murphy could result in governments bringing data centers in the Middle East \u201cinto national security planning frameworks alongside energy facilities, telecommunications networks, water treatment plants and transportation hubs.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortifying these targets may be difficult as data centers can be knocked offline by targeting turbines, AC units, and other exposed features.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Iranians view data centres as part of the conflict,\u201d Center for Strategic and International Studies director Matt Peal told the FT. \u201cThis is one way of having an actual impact on the region.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Amazon is reeling from the growing geopolitical instability threatening its operations.<\/p>\n \u201cEven as we work to restore these facilities, the ongoing conflict in the region means that the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable,\u201d the company told clients in a note<\/a>. \u201cWe strongly recommend that customers with workloads running in the Middle East take action now to migrate those workloads to alternate AWS Regions.\u201d<\/p>\n