1.4. AWS Global Infrastructure and Security Implications

A misconfigured Region selection can violate data residency laws overnight, and a failure to understand AZ independence can turn a single data center fire into a total service outage. AWS's global infrastructure isn't just a deployment convenience — it's a security architecture that provides geographic isolation, fault containment, and compliance boundaries. Think of Regions like separate countries with independent power grids, legal systems, and physical borders: what happens in one doesn't affect the others unless you explicitly connect them. What breaks when you don't understand this? You might accidentally replicate GDPR-protected data to a US Region, or deploy critical infrastructure in a single AZ and lose everything when that data center has an issue.

This section covers how Regions, Availability Zones, and edge locations affect your security posture and compliance strategy.

Scenario: A European company needs to ensure customer data stays within the EU while maintaining a globally accessible application. The architecture must balance data residency with performance.

Reflection Question: How does AWS's Region-based isolation model enable you to meet data residency requirements while still serving a global user base?