[HN Gopher] Iranian missile blitz takes down AWS data centers in...
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Iranian missile blitz takes down AWS data centers in Bahrain and
Dubai
Author : lschueller
Score : 113 points
Date : 2026-04-04 18:23 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.tomshardware.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.tomshardware.com)
| VoidWarranty wrote:
| Not to be insensitive about the humanitarian and economic
| situation, but, I am curious why there are data centers in that
| region at all? It just seems horribly inefficient from a cooling
| and electricity standpoint. Not to mention water.
|
| My pessimistic assumption is that Amazon said "yes" to handouts
| from regional government efforts to be relevant in tech, and that
| those data centers dont really matter to anyone but local
| politicians and monarchs who believe they have a seat at the
| table.
| Fairburn wrote:
| Once Iran ramps up, its going to be a free-for-all against all
| US data infrastructure. Iran has friends in low places so they
| don't have to do all of the dirty work themselves. This should
| be a wake-up call.
| watwut wrote:
| Why would water for data center be an issue there? They dont
| need to drink it.
|
| It was business for those contries. Just like finance, travel
| and wgat have you.
| wiml wrote:
| Water is used for cooling. You take in liquid water, release
| water vapor, and the phase transition takes away a lot of
| heat. Otherwise you need to pump that heat into dry air,
| which is much more difficult (energy-expensive). It's the
| same thing you do when you sweat.
| InvisibleUp wrote:
| Hundreds of millions of people live in the Middle East and a
| lot of large corporations are based there. Likely they thought
| it would be profitable, and likely they saw some decent use.
| mnky9800n wrote:
| I think you are overfitting to temperature as a variable in
| this decision making equation.
| einszwei wrote:
| Data centers can run on closed loop cooling systems which
| doesn't need continuous water supply. Only bottleneck is Energy
| supply which the MEA area doesn't lack.
| bawolff wrote:
| I imagine the same reason they have a data center in places
| like Sao Paulo. More locally centred businesses want the low
| ping, and AWS wants to be your cloud compute provider of choice
| no matter where your target audience is.
| rkagerer wrote:
| If anyone here is involved in making decisions about where to
| locate such centers, I'd love to hear more about how
| geopolitical risk factors in, and whether you plan and price
| out contingencies (e.g. "This is near an unstable area, worst
| case is we write off $###M, but after Y years it breaks even.
| And the site is better in these other factors than alternative
| Z over there..."). Is it similar to factoring for geophysical
| instabilities (e.g. earthquake/tsunami zone) or other risks? Or
| would this type of event catch you completely offguard? I'm
| guessing insurance riders specifically exclude these types of
| risks.
| zipy124 wrote:
| Insurance. No need to write off anything or take a loss, just
| a slightly increased yearly cost. The cost of said insurance
| is likely going to be very high for a long time now though.
| wiml wrote:
| Sure, but insurance is just outsourcing that calculation to
| a third party. AWS is big enough that I would think they
| largely self-insure, though I don't know if they do.
| tiew9Vii wrote:
| Middle East isn't some 3rd world. If you can imagine futuristic
| cities, rich Middle East countries are already living in them
| with all the oil wealth.
|
| They have phones, computers, digital services just like the US
| and Europe. Makes sense they want a data center in the region,
| close to them just like the US and Europe have data enters
| close to their users.
| andrepd wrote:
| Slight tangent, but to me futuristic cities are actually
| places like Amsterdam, with cozy streets and bike lanes
| everywhere, not places like Dubai with 16-lane freeways and a
| quasi-slave underclass staffing the tacky malls.
| echoangle wrote:
| If you take futuristic to mean ,,looking like the future",
| it think the second option is sadly more futuristic for
| some people
| andrepd wrote:
| Indeed, but sprawling lead-smoke infested freeways is the
| stuff of the 1950s; bike lanes and playgrounds and grassy
| tram tracks is what some cities are starting to do just
| now! So actually more futuristic, objectively speaking :)
| mlinhares wrote:
| Its sad that people think the "future" is all about owning
| stuff for yourself and not what the city can provide to its
| population.
| FpUser wrote:
| Why is it said? Being independent to the degree possible
| is the best state for human being I think.
| patmorgan23 wrote:
| Do you think we became the dominant species by being
| independent loners, or by forming complex interdependent
| groups?
| copperx wrote:
| I can't imagine the logic chain that made you come to
| that conclusion.
| tomjakubowski wrote:
| [delayed]
| b00ty4breakfast wrote:
| I guess it depends on if you were a Gibson fan or an Asimov
| fan as a teen
| brcmthrowaway wrote:
| And yet Amsterdam has a world famous seedy district
| cactusplant7374 wrote:
| A lot of people don't like bikes. I am down for salty
| licorice though.
| nutjob2 wrote:
| If you can imagine dystopian cities, rich Middle East
| countries are already living in them with all the oil wealth.
| haliskerbas wrote:
| San Francisco feels the same s/oil/tech/g
| surgical_fire wrote:
| So... The future is Dubai? I am still to hear a better
| argument in favor of extinction.
|
| This reminds me of a quote from "Stranger Than Fiction":
|
| > Harold: "I don't want to eat nothing but pancakes, I want
| to live! I mean, who in their right mind in a choice between
| pancakes and living chooses pancakes?"
|
| > Dr. Hilbert: "Harold, if you pause to think, you'd realize
| that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of
| life being led... and, of course, the quality of the
| pancakes"
| toast0 wrote:
| There's a fair amount of nearby customers. There's decent
| connectivity via undersea cables to Europe, East Asia, and
| Africa. UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are very
| encouraging of outside investments in their countries.
|
| I did some work with hosts on GCP in the region and you get fun
| things like hosts in Israel has bad routes to customers in
| nearby countries and vice versa, though. I don't know if AWS
| has access to better routing. Definitely a case where physical
| distance doesn't really correspond with network distance.
| paxys wrote:
| Because there are customers there
| someotherperson wrote:
| Yes, and also pushed for by the Israeli and US governments.
| Tech investment is part of the Abraham Accords - i.e this is
| part of the prerequisites for normalization of ties with
| Israel.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| It's extremely efficient from an evaporative cooling
| perspective.
| gorgoiler wrote:
| I was thinking the same thing about cooling. I guess a high
| pressure heat pump can work in any environment if it compresses
| a gas up to a temperature that's higher than ambient. Couple
| that with abundant cheap energy -- sunny, oily, and gassy! --
| and it doesn't seem unreasonable at all.
| echoangle wrote:
| You can use a heat pump for any realistic output temperature
| but the efficiency goes down the higher the temperature
| difference has to be.
|
| As long as sun and wind aren't the main energy sources there,
| it might be economical but I wouldn't exactly call it
| reasonable.
| seany wrote:
| Data governance compliance is a huge issue for some industries.
| "The days can't leave the country" will drive AWSs normal
| customers to demand bespoke regions setup and turned on
| edgarvaldes wrote:
| Yes, I'm surprised no one else has commented on this. Some
| regulations require that at least some backups be located in
| the same country or region.
| uluyol wrote:
| Electricity? It's probably one of the best places in the world
| to have a solar+battery installation?
| mememememememo wrote:
| My guess.
|
| Edge compute. Data (coughlaugh) residency. Obsession with low
| latency on our 42Mb web pages.
| mbreese wrote:
| I think the easy answer is: because there are customers there.
| It's a region full of major commercial and industrial
| companies. I can imagine that you'd want data centers close to
| where those customer are.
|
| Technically, I can see challenges in power and cooling, but
| those can be overcome. The real question is- Are there enough
| customers in the region to support local data centers? I think
| that's clearly yes.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| [dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47632503
| bawolff wrote:
| I do think there is some irony that the Iran war took down all
| the AWS datacenters in the middle east except the one (or 3 i
| guess) in Israel, which is still chugging along.
|
| Like as a strategy its kind of weird. Iran plans to force Israel
| to stop by wrecking the economies of a bunch of countries that
| are basically frenemies of Israel? I suppose its meant to
| pressure USA, it just seems like a terrible strategy.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| It's not that they don't want to hit the ones in Israel, it's
| that they're better defended, and further away.
|
| Bahrain to Iran is ~140 miles. Dubai is ~100 miles. Israel is
| closer to ~600.
| bawolff wrote:
| No doubt. But it still seems like a bizarre strategy. They
| can't shoot the people they want so they just shoot these
| other randoms.
| andrepd wrote:
| These other "randoms" are US allies which host bases and
| equipment used to attack them.
|
| In more practical terms, wrecking shit up in places like
| Dubai that made their name off air travel and attracting
| "expat" douchebags, is a very effective way to get them to
| pressure the US to stop the war. So is blowing up oil infra
| and stopping transit in Hormuz for allied nations.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| AWS isn't an "other random", it's a core piece of American
| infrastructure, and Bahrain hosts the US Fifth Fleet.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Support_Activity_Bahrai
| n
|
| Same for Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, etc.; all
| host US bases. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-
| east/us-military-facili...
| lenkite wrote:
| These randoms not only host U.S. bases supplying logistics
| for the attacks on Iran, but were are launch pads for
| missiles https://www.wsj.com/world/iran-war-land-missile-
| strikes-22ca... until Iran ensured the launch sites were
| destroyed
|
| "Videos verified by Storyful, which is owned by News Corp,
| the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, indicate
| that at least some of the launches came from Bahrain, the
| tiny kingdom just 125 miles across the Gulf from Iran."
|
| The air bases are still being used as launch pads for drone
| strikes and chopper missions.
| megous wrote:
| NY Times doesn't even know what NATO is, while writing a
| full-page article about it, so yeah this kind of ignorance
| about where USA has it hands and guns is not surprising,
| from some random on the internet. ;)
| FpUser wrote:
| >"They can't shoot the people they want so they just shoot
| these other randoms."
|
| Same as sanctions. There are many places where they can not
| tell governments what to do, so they suffocate general
| population
| toyg wrote:
| It's supposed to show to regional US allies that the American
| military cannot really protect them, pushing them to apply
| pressure to end the war in the short term, and to cool their
| relationship with the US and Israel in the long term.
|
| It has had some effect; the emirates are desperate to find a
| way out of this conflict, and various figures have publicly
| said "the system of alliances [with the US] has worked but
| needs to be modernized" - i.e. we can't allow Americans to do
| what they want anymore.
| geraneum wrote:
| Do Americans do what they want because they are "allowed" by
| gulf states?
| greggoB wrote:
| It (normally) has an effect on the military calculus - e.g.
| if the US weren't allowed to have military bases in these
| countries, the possibility to take such action seems less
| plausible.
| geraneum wrote:
| Correct, but that's not my point. My point is whether the
| Gulf States can realistically dictate what the US does.
| Perhaps they can affect US actions, but I doubt it's that
| cut and dried.
| guerrilla wrote:
| You need to think that all the way through. The answer is
| obviously yes. Yemen is a perfect example. Iran is
| obviously as well. Afghanistan another great case. It is
| certainly possible to resist US pressure. Iran is asking
| the gulf countries to do that. Imagine how much better they
| would all be able to resist the US together as well, better
| than each alone.
| hunterpayne wrote:
| The gulf countries hate Iran and have for a very very
| long time, longer than even the concept of the west has
| existed. Iran throwing around ballistic missiles is far
| more like a temper tantrum than a viable military
| strategy. And its a strategic gift to Trump. Whether
| he/we can take advantage of that, IDK.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| I'm not so sure it's a strategic gift for Trump. Before
| the war (oh, sorry, I meant the "special military
| operation") everything was largely fine for the Gulf
| states. Now, it's _not_.
| DANmode wrote:
| Who is "we", just for reader clarity?
| geraneum wrote:
| > The answer is obviously yes.
|
| Of course it isn't. In reality, being able to resist
| requires power. Power that's gained more or less
| independently such as Iran's. Gulf states should be in a
| position of power to able to resist US presence. The
| power they have right now is mostly gained through the
| help of USA and its allies. It's not the same as Iran.
| Not even close.
| guerrilla wrote:
| > Of course it isn't. In reality, being able to resist
| requires power.
|
| I gave examples of it actually happening. If sandal-
| wearing Houthis can resist, then well-funded oil states
| can as well. The Taliban beat the US. In fact, very few
| people have failed at ejecting the US from the country
| when they tried if you think back. The US tends to lose a
| lot.
| AdrianB1 wrote:
| The data centers in Israel are protected by their AA systems
| that have more interceptors available than the Emirates. For
| weeks there are rumors about low stocks of interceptors in the
| Emirates and Saudi Arabia, while Israel manufactures their own
| while also getting more from US, so their stocks were probably
| way higher and replenishment better.
|
| Also the Emirates are in range of short range cheapo drones and
| Iran build lot of these, while Israel is farther away.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| it's a good strategy. There's no point in trying to stop Israel
| by harming them economically because they know perfectly well
| that like for them, this war is existential. The Gulf states
| are financial hubs and tourist destinations disguised as
| countries and so their wealth is a neuralgic point, the Gulf
| states and also by extension the US actually respond to having
| their economies wrecked.
| mememememememo wrote:
| Iron dome.
| surgical_fire wrote:
| > I do think there is some irony that the Iran war took down
| all the AWS datacenters in the middle east except the one (or 3
| i guess) in Israel, which is still chugging along.
|
| ... For now.
|
| > Like as a strategy its kind of weird. Iran plans to force
| Israel to stop by wrecking the economies of a bunch of
| countries that are basically frenemies of Israel? I suppose its
| meant to pressure USA, it just seems like a terrible strategy.
|
| The gulf countries are enemies of Iran. In fact, they are a lot
| cozier to Israel.
| dmix wrote:
| Pretty sure this is old news being repackaged
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| So can Amazon file a claim with the Us government for
| compensation? Does their insurance cover this? Or do they just
| eat the loss?
| lschueller wrote:
| I am anything but a legal expert, but my guess would be that
| this falls under the aspects of force majeure. Which doesn't
| mean, that in a couple of years they try to take this to court.
| lokinorkle wrote:
| No, I'd say they'll get it back with free Iranian oil in a few
| weeks.
| cypherpunks01 wrote:
| US gov is not going to reimburse a private company for war
| damage caused by a sovereign country.
|
| Property insurance generally has war exclusions, insurance co
| will deny claims. Unless there is some affordable magic 100%
| war damage coverage policy sold in the middle east, which is
| doubtful, no insurer would be able to successfully underwrite
| anything like that.
|
| The company eats the losses and the recovery efforts it wants
| to persue.
| chasd00 wrote:
| So are the Azure data centers still up or do the Iranians just
| assume Azure will take itself offline eventually? Joking but I
| assume Microsoft (and Google) have a DC presence in the region
| too.
| ks2048 wrote:
| Gonna have to update my boto3 code to deal with a new value for
| instance.state['Name'], "bombed".
| amelius wrote:
| That's going to put more pressure on RAM chip availability.
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