AWS Local Zones Specialized2019年〜
Infrastructure that places computing resources in cities close to end users for low latency
What It Does
AWS Local Zones is infrastructure that extends AWS Region capabilities to specific cities. It provides single-digit millisecond latency to end users who are geographically distant from standard AWS Regions. Key services like EC2, EBS, and VPC are available within Local Zones, and they seamlessly integrate with other services in the parent Region.
Use Cases
Used for placing online game servers where real-time performance is critical, running media processing like video production and rendering locally, meeting low-latency requirements for financial trading systems, and encoding for live streaming.
Everyday Analogy
Think of it like a small delivery hub set up near a large warehouse (Region). While all products are in the large warehouse, frequently ordered items are also stocked at a nearby small hub for specific city customers. This dramatically reduces delivery time (latency).
What Are AWS Local Zones?
AWS Local Zones are infrastructure extensions that place AWS compute, storage, and networking services closer to end users. For example, if you want to serve users in a city far from the Tokyo Region with low latency, you use a Local Zone near that city. Local Zones are configured as subnets within the parent Region's VPC, integrating naturally into your existing architecture.
Available Services and Networking
Local Zones support key services including EC2 instances, EBS volumes, ELB, and VPC subnets. However, not all services available in the parent Region are available in Local Zones. Local Zones are connected to the parent Region via AWS's private network, so you can still access services not in the Local Zone like S3 and RDS. A common pattern is to place only latency-sensitive processing in the Local Zone and use the parent Region for everything else. For detailed information on available services and networking, reference books on Amazon also provide explanations.
Enabling and Configuration
Local Zones are disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled from the EC2 console settings. After enabling, create a VPC subnet in the Local Zone and launch EC2 instances within that subnet. Since you add Local Zone subnets to an existing VPC, no major network configuration changes are needed. However, available instance types vary by Local Zone, so check in advance.
Things to Watch Out For
- Local Zone resource pricing may be higher than the parent Region. Consider the tradeoff between cost and low latency
- Available instance types and services vary by Local Zone. Check the target Local Zone's support before deploying
- Local Zones may have limited redundancy. For workloads requiring high availability, design redundant configurations in combination with the parent Region
