CodeParkCheck these factors, in this order:
- Compliance and data residency. Data residency means where your data is physically stored. If laws or contracts say personal data must stay in the EU, you cannot use Regions outside the EU.
- Latency. Pick a Region close to most of your users. It should also be close to systems you call often, such as a payment provider or a partner's API.
- Service availability. New services and features do not launch in every Region at the same time. Check that everything you plan to use exists in that Region.
- Price. The same instance type or storage can cost different amounts in different Regions.
Finally, think about where a second Region would go if you later need disaster recovery (DR: a backup setup that takes over when the main one fails). Also remember that AWS bills you for data transfer between Regions.
- Data residency and compliance rules come first.
- Choose low latency to your users and to the systems you depend on.
- Not every service or feature is available in every Region.
- Prices are different in different Regions.
- Traffic between Regions costs money, so plan your disaster recovery Region early.