As a beginner of AWS, one of the first things you do is to pick a Region. But why does this matter? What does AWS Global Infrastructure mean?
It may seem little or even insignificant at first but AWS Global Infrastructure is the backbone to all AWS services. It is design to deliver high-speed and high-performance cloud services to all customers worldwide.
We will discuss each major components of the AWS Global Infrastructure namely:
- Regions,
- Availability Zones,
- Data Centers, and
- Edge Locations
What are the parts of the AWS Global Infrastructure?
AWS Regions
As of 2025, AWS consists of about 33 geographic Regions across the global and even more coming in the future.
Each Region is independent of the others. This separation allows you to choose where your data is stored and where your applications run.
A Region is a separate geographic area—like Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt, or Ohio.
Why is it important to choose the right Region?
- To reduce latency
- To meet compliance or data-residency requirements
- To keep your services close to your users
Availability Zones (AZs)
Now that we have an idea about region, we now have Availability Zones. Inside every region, there are multiple AZs, typically three(3) or more. An Availability Zone is made up of one or more physically separate data centers within the same Region.
Key Point:
Availability Zones are close enough to provide low latency, but far enough apart to prevent failures from affecting the whole Region.
If one AZ goes down due to power, network, or natural disaster issues, the others remain available. This is why AWS is known for high reliability.
Data Centers
Data centers are the physical buildings that contain:
- servers
- networking equipment
- power and cooling systems
AWS data centers house the actual computing hardware where your cloud resources run.
Each AZ contains multiple data centers to ensure redundancy. When we say your "resources are in the cloud," they really live inside these secure facilities.
Visual Representation
Image Source
This is what the global infrastructure looks like. A region contains three or more AZs, and AZs have data centers that runs the cloud.
Edge Locations
Not every country has an AWS Region, but many countries, including the Philippines, have Edge Locations.
Edge locations are used by services like:
- Amazon CloudFront (CDN)
- AWS Global Accelerator
- Route 53 DNS They act as local access points that cache or route content closer to users.
Why does this matter?
It reduces latency. Instead of your data traveling all the way to the Singapore Region (the closest Region to the Philippines), some content can be served from the Manila edge location, making loading times faster.
Why Do We Need to Understand These Concepts?
Understanding the AWS Global Infrastructure helps you:
1. Choose the Best Region for Your Workloads - Selecting the wrong Region can lead to slow performance or higher costs.
2. Design Highly Available Applications - Using multiple AZs protects your systems from outages.
3. Improve Performance for Global Users - Edge locations help content reach users faster.
4. Meet Compliance and Legal Requirements - Some countries require data to be stored within specific geographic boundaries.
being aware of this can save money.
5. Optimize Cost - Prices vary per Region—being aware of this can save money.
By understanding how Regions, Availability Zones, Data Centers, and Edge Locations work together, users can design cloud solutions that are faster, more secure, and more reliable.
Whether you’re deploying a small web app or managing enterprise-scale systems, knowing how AWS’s infrastructure operates gives you the power to make smarter choices about performance, cost, and resilience in the cloud.
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