Understanding AWS Global Infrastructure
Tags: learning, aws, cloud
Published: 2023-04-11 11:02:42

### Introduction:
In today's world, where businesses are expanding globally a reliable and robust IT infrastructure is a necessity. AWS (Amazon Web Services) provides an excellent cloud computing platform for businesses for deploying their applications and data. One of the most significant advantages of using AWS is its global infrastructure. In this blog, we will take a closer look at the AWS Global Infrastructure and how it enables global reach and scalability.

### AWS Global Infrastructure:
AWS Global Infrastructure is designed to provide high availability, fault tolerance, and scalability to support mission-critical applications for customers around the world.

AWS Global Infrastructure consists of the following main components:
- Regions
- Availability Zones
- Edge Locations.

AWS has a massive global infrastructure that spans across regions and availability zones. At this very moment as you are reading, AWS has 31 regions around the globe and 99 availability zones.


### AWS Regions:
AWS Regions are separate geographic areas that house AWS resources such as compute, storage and database services. Each geographical area consists of three or more availability zones. Each region is entirely independent and isolated from other regions.

AWS customers can launch their resources in multiple regions to provide better performance, higher availability and disaster recovery capabilities. AWS also ensures compliance with regulatory requirements by maintaining separate regions for specific countries.

Resources from one region can access resources in another region, AWS provides services like _Amazon S3_ or _Amazon Glacier_ to replicate your data between the regions.

Selecting a region is an important and necessary step for creating a resource in AWS, and choosing a right region for your applications is very important, you need to choose a region that is closest to your users to minimize latency and improve application performance. You should also consider data sovereignty and compliance requirements in choosing a region.

AWS services are _not_ universally available across all regions. Instead, the availability of each service may vary from one region to another. Some services may only be accessible in select regions.

Resources can be migrated from one AWS region to another using AWS services like _AWS Database Migration Service_, _AWS Server Migration Service_, and _AWS Resource Groups_.

Different regions have different pricing, due to various factors such as the cost of infrastructure, taxes, and local market conditions pricing for AWS services vary across regions.

AWS has 31 geographic regions around the world and is continuously  working in increasing their global footprint. AWS plans for five more regions to be added in various geographical locations. AWS maintains multiple geographic Regions, including Regions in North America, South America, Europe, China, Asia Pacific, South Africa, and the Middle East.


### Availability Zones:
An Availability Zone is a data center that is isolated from other data centers. It is designed to provide fault tolerance and high availability to the resources deployed in that zone. Each availability zone is equipped with independent power, cooling and networking infrastructure.

AWS has multiple availability zones in each region. These availability zones are connected to each other through high-speed networking, and they are designed to provide low-latency communication between them.

The number of Availability Zones in each AWS region varies, but most regions have at least three availability zones and AWS maintains a minimum distance of _100 km (60 miles)_ between its availability zones within a region. To achieve high availability and increase fault tolerance, applications can be deployed across multiple availability zones.

You have the control to choose which Availability Zone to deploy your resources in. However, deploying all your resources in a single availability zone may not be the best approach for high availability.

There are no additional charges for using multiple Availability Zones. However, keep in mind that using multiple Availability Zones may increase your overall AWS costs due to increased resource usage.

As of now, there are 99 Availability Zones and AWS is working is working on to add 15 more Availability Zones across the globe.

### Edge Locations:
AWS Edge Locations are used to cache content for faster delivery to users. Edge Locations are located in different parts of the world and are used to provide low-latency access to applications and data.

AWS Uses _Amazon CloudFront_, a content delivery network, to cache and deliver content from edge locations. AWS Edge locations are also used to provide services such as _AWS Global Accelerator_, _AWS Lambda@Edge_, and _Amazon Route 53_.

AWS Edge locations and AWS Regions are _not_ the same. AWS Regions are separate geographic areas where AWS resources are hosted, while AWS Edge locations are used to cache content closer to end-users. Also, AWS Edge locations are not meant for deploying applications or providing direct access to AWS services.

There may be additional costs associated with using AWS Edge locations. The charges depend on the amount of data transferred and the type of service being used. It's important to review the pricing information for each service before using AWS Edge locations to avoid unexpected costs.

Currently, AWS has over 400 Edge locations around the world.

### Benefits Of Using AWS Global Infrastructure:
AWS Global Infrastructure offers several benefits to its users, including -
- **High Availability**: AWS global infrastructure offers a highly available and fault-tolerant architecture. With the help of AWS regions and availability zones, you can design your applications for high availability and reliability.
- **Low Latency**: With AWS global infrastructure, you can reduce the network latency by deploying your applications closer to your end-users. AWS edge locations help in caching content and delivering it to the users with low latency.
- **Elasticity**:  AWS Global Infrastructure allows you to scale your resources up or down based on the demand. With the help of AWS Auto Scaling, you can automatically scale your resources based on the traffic.
- **Global Reach**: With AWS Global Infrastructure, you can expand your business globally without worrying about the infrastructure. AWS offers a global network of regions and edge locations that can help you to reach your customers worldwide.
- **Cost-effective**: AWS Global Infrastructure offers a cost-effective solution to your infrastructure needs. You only pay for the resources you use and you can save costs by using AWS services like AWS Lambda, which charges you only for the compute time used by your application.
- **Security**: AWS Global Infrastructure is designed with security in mind. AWS offers various security features like network security, identity and access management, and encryption to protect your data and resources.


### Conclusion:
AWS's global infrastructure is its key strengths, allowing businesses to deploy their resources in multiple regions to provide better performance, higher availability, and disaster recovery capabilities. The company's vast network of regions, Availability Zones, Edge Locations, and other networking resources provides businesses with reliable and robust cloud computing platform to deploy their applications and data globally.

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#### Useful Links:
- [AWS Global Infrastructure](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/)
- [AWS Official YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/@amazonwebservices)
- [Amazon CloudFront Documentation](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/features/?whats-new-cloudfront.sort-by=item.additionalFields.postDateTime&whats-new-cloudfront.sort-order=desc#Security)
- [Amazon CloudFront Pricing Documentation](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/pricing/)