Summary: Where your servers run affects speed, compliance and cost. Here is how to choose the right cloud regions.
Major cloud providers operate data centres across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. The region you choose matters.
Consider your users
Place servers close to most of your users for lower latency, and use a CDN for the rest.
Consider your data obligations
Some industries and customers require data to stay in a particular country or region.
Consider resilience
Use multiple availability zones and keep backups in a second region.
Consider cost
Prices vary between regions. Compare compute, storage and data transfer costs.
Multi-region architectures
Global applications can run in several regions with traffic routed to the nearest one, but they add complexity.
FAQs
Should every app be multi-region?
No. Many applications run well in one region with a CDN.
Can we move regions later?
Yes, with planning and testing.
Does region affect SEO?
Speed matters for user experience; server location itself is a minor factor.
