Tech in Diagrams

Regions & Availability Zones

A region is a geographic location; availability zones are physically separate data centre groups inside it.

Intermediate 4 min Cloud Computing
One region, three independent zones
  • Serving traffic
  • Replication
  • Unavailable zone
OUTSIDEUsersDistance to the regionsets the latency floor.REGIONOne geography · fast links between zonesDEPLOYED ACROSS ZONESWork is shared between the zones that are healthy2 of 3 zones servingHEALTHYAvailability Zone AOwn power, coolingand network feeds.HEALTHYAvailability Zone BOwn power, coolingand network feeds.UNAVAILABLEAvailability Zone COwn power, coolingand network feeds.SYNCRESILIENCEHow far are you covered?ANOTHER REGIONHundreds of km away
Multi-zone survives a facility. Only a second region survives losing this whole geography — a separate, higher-level design choice.
Zones are separate facilities inside one region: losing one costs capacity, not the service. Losing the whole region is a different problem, solved by a second region.

Hover the region, a zone, the replication link or the resilience rail to isolate the relevant elements; click any component for a short explanation.

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