In AWS, what are a Region and an Availability Zone (AZ)?
Options
- A Region is a geographic area; an AZ is an isolated data center in it (Correct option)
- A Region is a server; an AZ is a database running on it
- A Region is a country law; an AZ is a firewall rule
- They are the same thing, named differently by each cloud
Answer
A Region is a geographic area; an AZ is an isolated data center location inside it, and each Region has multiple (at least three) AZs
Why
AWS describes a Region as a physical location in the world where it clusters data centers. Each Region has multiple, isolated Availability Zones (a minimum of three).
Running your app in more than one AZ keeps it available if one data center has a problem.
Azure has the same ideas: regions and availability zones.
Remember
Region = area. AZ = isolated data centers within it.