AWS global infrastructure (for example, Availability Zones, AWS Regions)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a robust, scalable, and high-availability platform through its global infrastructure which comprises AWS Regions, Availability Zones (AZs), Local Zones, Wavelength Zones, and AWS Outposts.

AWS Regions

AWS categorizes its infrastructure into geographical areas called Regions. Each AWS Region is a separate geographic area that is completely independent of the other regions. These Regions consist of multiple, isolated, and physically separate locations known as Availability Zones. As of the knowledge cutoff in early 2023, AWS has announced or launched over 25 Regions around the world.

The choice of an AWS Region is crucial for a few reasons. Firstly, data governance and legal requirements may dictate where data should be stored and processed. Secondly, latency can be reduced by choosing a Region closer to the end-users of the application. Lastly, not all AWS services or new features are available in every Region at the same time, so the choice of Region can provide access to certain AWS services.

Availability Zones

Within each AWS Region, there are multiple Availability Zones. Each AZ is a distinct data center with its own power, cooling, and networking to ensure fault tolerance and high availability. Typically, there are a minimum of two and up to a maximum of six AZs in a Region, although this can vary.

AZs in the same Region are connected through low-latency links. These are designed in such a way that in the event of a failure in one AZ, the other can seamlessly take over, ensuring that the services provided by AWS are resilient and reliable. Moreover, AWS recommends deploying applications across multiple AZs to achieve fault-tolerance and seamless operation in the face of hardware failures, natural disasters, or system outages.

AWS Local Zones

AWS Local Zones are a newer part of AWS’s infrastructure. They are an extension of AWS Regions designed to deliver select services closer to end-users, thus minimizing latency to single-digit milliseconds. Local Zones are ideal for latency-sensitive applications, such as gaming, media & entertainment, and real-time communication applications.

AWS Wavelength Zones

AWS Wavelength enables developers to build applications that deliver ultra-low latencies to mobile and connected devices over 5G networks. Wavelength Zones embed AWS compute and storage services at the edge of telecommunications providers’ 5G networks, minimizing the latency to connect to an application from a mobile device.

AWS Outposts

AWS Outposts brings native AWS services, infrastructure, and operating models to virtually any data center, co-location space, or on-premises facility. With Outposts, you can use the same AWS APIs, tools, hardware, and functionality across on-premises facilities and the cloud to deliver a truly consistent hybrid experience.

Best Practices for Using AWS Global Infrastructure

When deploying applications and workloads on AWS, you should:

• Select an AWS Region considering factors like compliance with data residency requirements, proximity to customers, service availability, and pricing variations.
• Deploy applications across multiple Availability Zones for high availability, ensuring that in case of an AZ failure, the application continues to operate.
• Design applications to be resilient, taking advantage of multiple Regions and AZs to protect against outages.
• Use services such as Amazon Route 53, AWS CloudFront, and AWS Global Accelerator to manage traffic globally and ensure users are routed to the closest endpoint for the best performance.
• Consider using AWS Local Zones for low-latency requirements or AWS Wavelength Zones for applications that need to be close to mobile network users.

Summary

Understanding and effectively utilizing AWS global infrastructure is essential for Solutions Architects to design and deploy resilient, high-performing, and compliant applications on AWS. By leveraging different Regions, Availability Zones, Local Zones, Wavelength Zones, and AWS Outposts, applications can meet specific business, technical, and regulatory requirements.

AWS Regions, Availability Zones, and the newer extensions like Local Zones and Wavelength Zones collectively form the backbone of AWS’s vast global network. This network’s design enables AWS to deliver a combination of high availability, high durability, and high performance, essential for running enterprise-grade applications in the cloud.