Regions and Availability Zones
Cloud providers run data centres all over the world, grouped into regions and subdivided into availability zones. These terms decide where your data physically lives and how resilient your systems are to local faults.
Understanding them helps with performance, compliance and reliability decisions.
What They Mean
- Region: a geographic location such as London or Frankfurt, containing multiple data centres.
- Availability zone: one or more isolated data centres within a region, each with independent power and networking.
Why It Matters to You
Placing systems close to your customers reduces loading times. Spreading them across multiple availability zones means a single data-centre fault does not take your service down. For UK businesses, the London region also keeps data within the country.
How We Use Them
- Choose a region close to your main audience.
- Run critical systems across at least two zones.
- Check data-residency rules before settling on a location.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the region affect my data-protection obligations?
Yes. Keeping data in a UK or EU region simplifies compliance with UK GDPR, which is why we usually recommend London.
If you need a hand with any of this, your Progressive Robot delivery team is ready to help. Raise a ticket from the Support area of your client portal or speak to your account manager and we will guide you through the next steps.