What is an Availability Zone (AZ)?
An Availability Zone (AZ) is one or more data centers within a Region, each with independent power, networking, and connectivity. Every Region has at least three AZs.
AZs are physically separated to reduce disaster risk, yet close enough for low-latency communication between them.
Availability Zones Video
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Availability Zones Illustration
The diagram shows three US West Regions, each containing multiple Availability Zones. Zooming into N. California reveals three AZs (US-West-1A, 1B, 1C), each representing a group of data centers.
Image created by Amazon Web Services
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High Availability
Deploy resources across multiple AZs so your application continues running even if one zone fails. This provides:
- High availability: Continuous operation without downtime
- Agility: Quick adaptation to changing requirements
- Elasticity: Automatic scaling based on demand