Chapter 7: AWS Infrastructure Intro

AWS Infrastructure Intro (also called AWS Global Infrastructure Introduction).

This is one of the most important foundational topics in all AWS learning — it shows up in every beginner tutorial, every Cloud Practitioner exam question, and every real project discussion. People call it “AWS Infrastructure Intro”, “AWS Global Infrastructure”, “Regions & AZs intro”, etc.

Think of it as understanding the “where” and “how” AWS physically runs your apps worldwide — so you get speed, reliability, low cost, and compliance.

No jargon overload — let’s break it down like we’re drawing on a whiteboard together, with Hyderabad examples and simple analogies.

1. Why does AWS Infrastructure matter? (The “why” first)

Imagine you’re running a food delivery app like Swiggy in Hyderabad:

• Users in Secunderabad want super-fast order loading (low latency).
• During IPL finals, traffic explodes — you can’t afford downtime.
• Data privacy laws (like India’s DPDP Act) might require keeping customer data in India.
• A power cut/flood/fire in one building shouldn’t crash your entire app.

AWS Global Infrastructure solves all this by spreading massive data centers worldwide in a smart, layered way:

• Regions → big geographic areas (country/continent level)
• Availability Zones (AZs) → isolated data centers inside a Region
• Edge Locations → tiny caches close to users (for speed)

This setup gives:

• High availability (99.99%+ uptime)
• Low latency (fast loading)
• Disaster recovery
• Compliance (data stays where laws require)

2. The Main Building Blocks (2026 Current Numbers)

As of February 2026 (from AWS official pages):

• 39 Geographic Regions launched (with 2 more announced: Saudi Arabia & Chile)
• 123 Availability Zones across those Regions (most have 3+, some 4–6)
• 750+ Edge Locations / Points of Presence (PoPs) for CloudFront CDN + 15+ Regional Edge Caches

AWS adds new ones fast — India already has strong coverage.

3. What is an AWS Region? (Level 1 – The Big Map)

Definition: A Region is a separate geographic area (like a country or large part of one) where AWS clusters multiple data centers.

• Each Region is isolated from others (network/power failures in one don’t affect others).
• You choose a Region when creating resources (e.g., EC2 instance, S3 bucket).
• Most services are Region-specific (your S3 bucket in Mumbai can’t be directly accessed from Singapore without setup).

Analogy: Think of Regions as different cities/states in India.

• Mumbai Region = Maharashtra
• Hyderabad Region = Telangana (newer one!)

India Regions (super relevant for us in Hyderabad):

Example: Your startup in Gachibowli chooses ap-south-2 (Hyderabad) → data stays in India (compliance), latency <10ms for local users, cheaper transfer costs within India.

4. What is an Availability Zone (AZ)? (Level 2 – Inside the Region)

Definition: An AZ is one or more physically separate data centers inside a Region — isolated for power, networking, cooling.

• Minimum 3 AZs per Region (most have 3–6).
• AZs are connected with super-fast, low-latency, redundant fiber (metro network).
• You spread your app across AZs → if one AZ has fire/flood/power outage, others keep running.

Analogy: AZs are different buildings/neighborhoods in the same city (Hyderabad).

• One AZ in Banjara Hills, another in Hitech City, another in Gachibowli — close but independent.

Naming: ap-south-1a, ap-south-1b, ap-south-1c (the letter = AZ ID).

Real Example (high availability setup):

• Your Zomato-like app runs:
  • Web servers on EC2 in AZ a & b
  • Database (RDS) with Multi-AZ (primary in a, standby in b)
• Flood hits one data center → traffic auto-fails over → app stays up.

This is why AWS promises high availability — you design for it.

5. What are Edge Locations? (Level 3 – Speed for Users)

Definition: Small AWS points-of-presence (PoPs) worldwide — not full data centers, mainly for Amazon CloudFront (CDN) and other edge services.

• 750+ Edge Locations globally (many in India: Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad area, etc.).
• They cache content (videos, images, websites) close to users → download from nearby instead of far Region.

Analogy: Edge Locations are like local kirana stores stocking popular items — you get fast delivery without going to big warehouse (Region).

Example: User in Hyderabad watches a Telugu movie trailer on your app:

• Original video in S3 (ap-south-2 Hyderabad Region)
• CloudFront caches copy at Hyderabad Edge Location
• User gets video in <1 second instead of 50–100ms round-trip to Region data center

Other edge services: AWS Global Accelerator, Lambda@Edge, etc.

6. Other Related Terms (Quick Intro – Good to Know)

• Local Zones → Extend a Region to specific metro cities (e.g., Delhi, Kolkata Local Zones in India) for even lower latency (milliseconds).
• Wavelength Zones → For 5G ultra-low latency (mobile edge computing).
• Outposts → AWS hardware in your own data center (hybrid).

But for beginners: Focus on Regions + AZs + Edge Locations — 90% of questions/tutorials use these.

7. Quick Hands-On: See It in AWS Console (Do This!)

1. Log in to AWS Console (console.aws.amazon.com)
2. Top-right → Region dropdown → see list (select ap-south-2 Hyderabad)
3. Launch EC2 → see AZ choices (a, b, c)
4. Create S3 bucket → note it’s Region-specific
5. Search “CloudFront” → create distribution → see Edge Locations map (global view)

Summary Table – AWS Infrastructure Cheat Sheet (2026)

Bottom line: AWS Infrastructure Intro teaches you how AWS is built globally to give speed, uptime, and scale — choose right Region (Hyderabad for us!), spread across AZs, use Edge for speed.

Got it? This is the “map” of AWS — everything else sits on top.

Next?

• Want a deeper dive on choosing Region for Indian projects?
• Or how to design Multi-AZ app (with example)?
• Or difference between Region vs AZ failures?

Tell me — next whiteboard ready! 🚀🌍