Embarking on my AWS Journey: Exploring AWS global-infrastructure
Tags: aws, cloud, network, devops
Published: 2023-10-23 11:35:23

*Dear Readers,*

I am thrilled to embark on this exciting journey to contribute back to the community. As someone passionate about technology and innovation, I am eager to delve deeper into the world of cloud computing and share my learnings and experiences with you all. In this first blog post, I aim to introduce to AWS regions, Availability zones, Local zone and Edge networks along with building blocks of Amazon Web Services.

Let's begin the journey. 

## Understanding AWS

**Amazon Web Services (AWS)** is a comprehensive and widely adopted cloud computing platform offered by Amazon. It provides numerous services that enable organizations to build and deploy sophisticated applications with increased flexibility, scalability, and reliability. From computing power to storage solutions, databases to content delivery, AWS offers a vast array of services tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses and developers worldwide.



## AWS Regions

AWS has the concept of a Region, which is a physical location around the world where data centers are clustered. We call each group of logical data centers an Availability Zone. Each AWS Region consists of a minimum of three, isolated, and physically separate AZs within a geographic area. 
![AWS Regions](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/itunlhs3hhw1gbwrhluk.png)


## Availability Zones (AZs)

An Availability Zone (AZ) is one or more discrete data centers with redundant power, networking, and connectivity in an AWS Region. All AZs in an AWS Region are interconnected with high-bandwidth, low-latency networking, over fully redundant, dedicated metro fiber providing high-throughput, low-latency networking between AZs. All traffic between AZs is encrypted.

![Region_AZs](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/696j1snig0fl1nn1jgk9.png)


## AWS Local Zones 

AWS Local Zones place compute, storage, database, and other select AWS services closer to end-users. With AWS Local Zones, you can easily run highly-demanding applications that require single-digit millisecond latencies to your end-users such as media & entertainment content creation, real-time gaming, reservoir simulations, electronic design automation, and machine learning.

![AWS Local Zones](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/q0nud944quletw8u3boe.png)


## Edge Networks

AWS Edge Locations are endpoints for AWS which are used for caching content and accelerating access to AWS services. They are part of the Amazon CloudFront content delivery network (CDN) and are located in most major cities around the world.  AWS edge networking services securely transmit your user-facing data and with improved latency worldwide.

![AWS Edge Networks](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8r2rp1zhe3a01j49punn.png)


As of October 2023, 

- There are total 32 Launched Regions each with multiple Availability Zones (AZs). 
- 102 Availability Zones
- 35 Local Zones& 29 Wavelength Zones for ultralow latency applications
- 550+ Points of Presence and 13 Regional Edge Caches
- 245 Countries and Territories Served
- 115 Direct Connect Locations

You can keep updated yourself by referring below links:

[AWS global Infrastructure](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az/)
[AWS Local Zone](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/localzones/locations/)
[AWS Edge Network](https://aws.amazon.com/products/networking/edge-networking/)
[AWS Documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/index.html)