Millions of customers, ranging from small businesses to large enterprises, rely on the powerful and flexible infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Designed to meet diverse application requirements, AWS offers a robust and reliable infrastructure that encompasses a global network of computers deployed in numerous countries.
To effectively manage this infrastructure, AWS leverages a well-defined and logical component structure specific to its network.
Conceptually, this infrastructure can be represented as follow:
Regions
Regions are geographic locations where Amazon has deployed hardware to support its services. The main reason (IMO) for regions is to ensure a consistent regulatory environment for deployed applications. Examples of this include GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) that needs to be respected by some European countries, or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the United States.
About GovCloud Regions
Government Regions (aka GovCloud) are designed to offer services according to the regulations of US government agencies. These regions are dedicated to serving government customers and are operated with additional security measures and compliance controls.
Here are some key specifics of GovCloud Regions:
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Operated for Government Use: GovCloud regions are exclusive regions intended for government customers, allowing them to host sensitive and regulated workloads with strict data sovereignty requirements.
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Limited Access: Access to GovCloud is restricted to authorized personnel, government agencies, and entities that meet the eligibility criteria defined by AWS.
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Enhanced Security and Compliance: GovCloud regions adhere to stringent security standards and compliance frameworks specific to government regulations, such as Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) in the United States.
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Isolated Infrastructure: GovCloud regions are physically and logically isolated from other regions to ensure data privacy and separation from non-government workloads.
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Government-specific Services: These regions offer a subset of AWS services tailored to meet government requirements, ensuring compatibility with security standards and regulations.
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Data Sovereignty: GovCloud regions enable government agencies to maintain control over their data by keeping it within the boundaries of their respective countries.
GovCloud regions are available to the US government only. I don’t think other countries have access to national equivalents. Furthermore, I do not think that military projects are hosted in these regions.
You can find more information about GovCloud here.
Naming of Regions
Regions have a consistent naming strategy:
<location code>-<sublocation-specifier>-<creation-index>
where:
- location code represents a geographic location, e.g., us (United States), ap (Asia Pacific), ca (Canada), eu (Europe), me (Middle East), etc.
- sublocation-specifier represents a specifier for that location, e.g., east (e.g. us-east).
- creation-index represents the order in which this specific region was created, e.g., the first region created
For developers
As a developer, the selection of a region is crucial when using AWS services. While some services are global, others are only available in specific regions. Consideration should be given to factors such as compliance requirements, network performance, availability needs, cost, and service availability.
To explore the services available in each region, refer to the AWS Regional Services List.
Availability Zones
Availability Zones (AZs) are subdivisions within each AWS region that provide increased fault tolerance, high availability, and reduced latency for applications deployed in that region.
AZs within a region are geographically separated to minimize the risk of simultaneous failures. Each AZ operates independently, with its own power supply, power generators, and other infrastructure components.
AWS regions typically consist of a minimum of three AZs, but some regions may have up to six AZs. While services can be deployed to specific AZs, AWS often manages the allocation of services across AZs automatically.
It’s worth noting that although AZs are commonly associated with data centers, a single AZ may comprise multiple data centers.
As of now, there are 99 AZs across AWS regions.
For developers
As a developer you need to be aware of availability zones to deal with fault tolerance mainly. An example of this would be for the deployment of a relational database, where you may want to use multiple availability zones to ensure data redundancy. Another example would be with the deployment of systems like Kafka, where you may use different zones for clustering.
Edge Locations
Edge Locations play a pivotal role in optimizing content delivery and enhancing the performance of AWS services. In practical terms, edge locations focus on content delivery, contributing significantly to the improvement of AWS service performance. They enhance delivery speed and reduce latency during data transfer, resulting in notable performance improvements.
It’s important to note that edge locations are not directly accessible by AWS clients. Therefore clients cannot choose specific edge locations for deployment. Instead, clients may recognize the need for accelerated content delivery and opt to subscribe to AWS CloudFront, which utilizes edge locations to achieve its objectives.
It is important to understand that edge locations remain bound to specific regions. (Whatever data regulation set for a given region will still be respected when edge locations are used).
For Developers
Developers do not have control over edge location being used.