Let’s get a quick overview of Regions and Availability Zones from an AWS certification perspective. We will look at important certification questions regarding Regions and Availability Zones.
You will learn
- What is a Region?
- What is an Availability Zone?
- Why do we need Regions and Availability Zones?
Regions and Zones - Need
Why do we need Regions and Zones?
Let’s first understand that with a simple scenario.
Step 1 : Single Data Center
Scenario: Imagine that your application is deployed in a data center in London.
What would be the challenges?
- Challenge 1 : Slow access for users from other parts of the world (high latency)
- Challenge 2 : What if the data center crashes?
- Your application goes down (low availability)
Step 2 : Multiple data centers in London
Let’s add in one more data center in London.
What would be the challenges now?
- Challenge 1 : Slow access for users from other parts of the world
- Challenge 2 (SOLVED) : What if one data center crashes?
- Your application is still available from the other data center
- Challenge 3 : What if entire region of London is unavailable?
- Your application goes down
Step 3 : Multiple regions
Let’s add a new region : Mumbai.
What would be the challenges?
- Challenge 1 (PARTLY SOLVED) : Slow access for users from other parts of the world
- You can solve this by adding deployments for your applications in other regions
- Challenge 2 (SOLVED) : What if one data center crashes?
- Your application is still live from the other data centers
- Challenge 3 (SOLVED) : What if entire region of London is unavailable?
- Your application is served from Mumbai
Regions
Imagine setting up your own data centers in different regions around the world. That’s not easy unless you are a big corporate!
AWS provides 20+ regions around the world (expanding every year).
Advantages of Regions include:
- High Availability
- Low Latency
- Adhere to government regulations
You can choose the right region(s) for your application based on:
- Where are your users located?
- Where is your data located?
- Regulatory and security compliance needs
AWS Availability Zones
Availability Zones are Isolated locations in a Region.
Each AWS Region has at least two Availability Zones.
Availability Zones increase availability of applications in the same region.
AWS Regions and Availability Zones examples
New Regions and AZs are constantly added. Here is table showing examples of regions and AZs.
| Region Code | Region | Availability Zones | Availability Zones List |
|---|---|---|---|
| us-east-1 | US East (N. Virginia) | 6 | us-east-1a us-east-1b us-east-1c us-east-1d us-east-1e us-east-1f |
| eu-west-2 | Europe (London) | 3 | eu-west-2a eu-west-2b eu-west-2c |
| ap-south-1 | Asia Pacific(Mumbai) | 3 | ap-south-1a ap-south-1b ap-south-1c |