Understanding Azure Regions

Azure regions are geographical areas that contain one or more datacenters. Microsoft has deployed regions worldwide to provide services closer to your users, reduce latency, and meet data residency requirements.

Each region is paired with another region (a paired region) to provide disaster recovery and high availability capabilities. Data is replicated within a region and between paired regions.

Key characteristics of Azure Regions:

• Geographical Location: Physically distinct areas where Azure services are hosted.
• Availability Zones: Within a region, Availability Zones are physically separate locations with independent power, cooling, and networking.
• Paired Regions: Regions that are paired for replication and disaster recovery.
• Service Availability: Not all Azure services are available in every region.

Selecting the optimal region is crucial for several reasons:

1. Proximity and Performance

Locate your resources in a region geographically close to your end-users to minimize latency and improve application responsiveness. Use tools like Azure Speed Test to benchmark performance.

2. Data Residency and Compliance

Many industries and countries have regulations regarding where data can be stored and processed. Azure regions help you comply with these requirements.

3. Service Availability

Ensure that the specific Azure services you need are available in your chosen region. The availability of services can vary by region.

4. Cost

Pricing for Azure services can differ slightly between regions. Consider cost-effectiveness when making your decision.

5. High Availability and Disaster Recovery

Leverage paired regions to design resilient applications that can withstand datacenter or regional outages.

Here are some of the major Azure regions:

For a comprehensive and up-to-date list, refer to the official Azure Geographies documentation.

When creating an Azure resource (like a Virtual Machine or Storage Account) via the Azure portal, CLI, or PowerShell, you'll be prompted to select a region.

Using Azure CLI:

In this example, the resource group 'myResourceGroup' is created in the 'East US' region.

View Global Azure Map Network Security Availability Zones Azure Pricing