Attack Of The Drones: How Iran’s ‘Asymmetric Warfare’ Could Send Shockwaves Through The Cloud

(Photo by Sohrab / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

The Drone Wars are here. Although the United States homeland might be safe for now, in the near future, a drone attack 8,000 miles away from our shores could harm your internet-reliant business or your daily internet use.

At the outset of the war, Iran launched drone attacks against three Amazon Web Services (AWS) Facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain that triggered major outages in the region. On March 2, Amazon said in a company update that the strikes had caused “structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage.” Millions of people in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were reportedly unable to use mobile apps, check their bank balances, pay for a taxi, or purchase food delivery, following the attacks. (RELATED: Iranian Drone Attack Strikes US Consulate In Dubai)

Although the attacks did not immediately impact Americans here in the United States, it is very possible that the effects of more drone strikes on data centers throughout the Gulf region could eventually ripple into our daily lives.

Guests look at a model of the largest data center in the UAE under construction in Abu Dhabi as the Stargate initiative, a joint venture between G42, Microsoft, and OpenAI, during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi on November 3, 2025. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE / AFP via Getty Images)

The Middle East has become a major region for American tech development and data centers. At the start of the Trump administration, numerous American companies, including Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft, Oracle, and OpenAI, announced investments in the UAE. As part of President Trump’s $500 billion “Stargate” initiative, Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Cisco have joined to build a massive data center in the UAE.

But that project is now under a new threat: Iranian drone attacks and “asymmetric warfare.”

“I believe the Iranians are building on tactics they’ve seen be effective in the Ukraine conflict. Asymmetric warfare that can target critical infrastructure creates pressure on adversaries by disrupting public safety and economic activity,” Sean Gorman, the chief executive of a tech firm that has contracted with the U.S. military, told The Guardian.

“UAE and Bahrain have both been positioning themselves as global AI hubs by investing heavily in data centers and fiber infrastructure to connect them to the rest of the world,” he continued. “If they can disrupt that infrastructure, it puts their strategic position under risk while also disrupting operations that are important to the economy.”

Smoke rises from a high-rise building following a drone attack in Kuwait City on March 8, 2026. The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, sparking swift retaliation by the Islamic republic which responded with missile attacks across the region. The war has dragged in global powers, upended the world’s energy and transport sectors, and brought chaos to even usually peaceful areas of the volatile region. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

It seems far-fetched, but further Iranian attacks on data centers could eventually impact American businesses and internet users. According to news outlet Governing, “Disruptions won’t necessarily be limited to nearby organizations using the data centers’ services. If more data centers in the Middle East are disrupted, the computing workloads the centers had handled may be pushed to data centers in other regions, including the U.S.”

T.J. Sayers, senior director of Threat Intelligence of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, told the outlet that, despite there being redundancies and plenty of other data centers in various regions, including the U.S., which are obviously shielded from Iran’s drones, they could still suffer problems thanks to increased workload.

According to Sayers, the increased competition for scarce computing resources may end up slowing processing times and raising costs for businesses that depend on data centers. Cloud services, content delivery networks, and even AI models could all be affected. And, if data centers were to be fully destroyed by an Iranian drone attack, it could take years to rebuild them, which could lead to even more long-term disruptions.

Outside of price shocks and gas prices, many Americans often feel totally immune to the consequences of war. However, if the Iranian drone war attacks continue to escalate, we may find ourselves experiencing tech snafus and higher costs because of data center work overload.

The world is highly connected and efficient, yet highly fragile. The Iranians certainly understand this, and whether they are attacking Amazon facilities in the UAE or liquid natural gas refineries in Qatar, they can sow chaos in the markets and inflict some serious economic harm on the West — all with a cheaply-made drone.

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