Many cloud customers have applications that require single-digit millisecond latency for end users, such as real-time gaming, financial trading platforms, healthcare diagnostics, live media broadcasting, and AR/VR. When an AWS Region isn't close enough to meet these latency requirements, Customers have to provision their infrastructure and use different APIs and tools to build their applications for low latency.
That is where AWS Local Zones comes into play. This article explores the concept of AWS Local Zones, their benefits, and real-world use cases that demonstrate their value in modern cloud architecture.
AWS Local Zone
AWS Local Zones is a specialized infrastructure deployment option offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). These zones are strategically located closer to end-users, allowing for ultra-low latency and the ability to support workloads that require rapid response times. By placing core services such as Compute, Storage, Network, and other selected services in these geographically dispersed locations, AWS enables customers to deploy applications that demand single-digit millisecond latencies for seamless user experiences, as well as to support on-premises data centers where proximity is crucial.
You might be thinking what about the AWS Regions and Zones and how does it fit with AWS Local Zones? Well, AWS Local Zones extend AWS regions (parent region) and are located close to a large population, industry, and IT centers. It then connects to their parent region via Amazon’s redundant and high-bandwidth network giving applications running in AWS Local Zones access to the rest of AWS services.
Below is the Local Zone Workload visualization from official AWS documentation.
How Local Zones Work
A Local Zone is an extension of an AWS Region that is located close to your users geographically. Local Zones have their own internet connections and support AWS Direct Connect. This allows resources created in a Local Zone to serve applications that require low latency.
To use a Local Zone, you must first enable it. Next, you create a subnet in the Local Zone. Finally, you launch resources in the Local Zone subnet. For more detailed instructions, see Getting Started with AWS Local Zones.
The following diagram illustrates an account with a VPC in the AWS Region us-west-2 that is extended to the Local Zone us-west-2-lax-1. Each zone in the VPC has one subnet, and each subnet has one EC2 instance.
Benefits of AWS Local Zones
Low Latency: By bringing AWS services closer to the user, Local Zones reduce latency, providing faster response times and improved user experience.
Hybrid Cloud Flexibility: Local Zones support hybrid cloud architectures, enabling seamless integration with on-premises infrastructure.
Data Residency Compliance: Helps meet local data residency requirements by keeping data within specific geographic boundaries.
Disaster Recovery: Provides additional options for disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
AWS Local Zones Use-Cases
Media Production and Live Broadcasting
A media company can use AWS Local Zones to host live video streaming applications. By processing live video streams in Local Zones, the company can achieve lower latency, ensuring high-quality, real-time broadcasting for viewers.Real-Time Multiplayer Gaming
A gaming company can deploy game servers in Local Zones to provide low-latency connections for players in specific geographic regions. This ensures a smooth and responsive gaming experience, crucial for maintaining player engagement and satisfaction.Healthcare Imaging and Diagnostics
A healthcare provider can use Local Zones to process medical images (e.g., X-rays, MRIs) close to the point of generation. This reduces the time required for analysis and enables faster diagnosis, enhancing patient care.Financial Trading Platforms
A financial services firm can deploy trading applications in Local Zones to minimize latency in transaction processing. This ensures faster trade execution and helps the firm meet regulatory requirements for data residency and security.Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR)
An AR/VR company can use Local Zones to host the backend infrastructure for immersive experiences. Low-latency processing is critical for AR/VR applications to ensure a seamless and responsive user experience.
Getting Started with Local Zone
To get started with AWS Local Zones, you must first enable a Local Zone through the Amazon EC2 console or the AWS CLI. Next, create a subnet in a VPC in the parent Region, specifying the Local Zone when you create it. Finally, create AWS resources in the Local Zone subnet.
Local Zone from EC2 in my AWS console
Enabling Local Zone in my region us-east-1 and it will be in US East Atlanta.
Now I am going to set up a Local Zone VPC subnet. When you add a subnet, you just need to specify a range of IP addresses for that subnet. You can also choose to include a different range of IP addresses specifically for IPv6 if that's something your network uses. You get to decide which Local Zone this subnet belongs to, and you can have several subnets all in the same Local Zone if you need to.
Below are the details for Subnet in our Local Zone. As you can see I selected Availability Zone to our newly enabled Atlanta Local Zone
After creating a subnet for your local zone, Create a resource in your Local Zone subnet. I'm going to deploy the EC2 server in that local zone within this newly created subnet named lz-subnet.
Now I am not going to show you how to create an EC2 as it is not the scope of this article but make sure to edit Network settings,
- Select your VPC.
- Select your Local Zone subnet.
- Enable or disable Auto-assign public IP.
- Create a security group or select an existing one.
After creating an EC2, you should see these configurations for your EC2.
Notice, that I chose the c6i.large instance type because to Atlanta local zone doesn't support t2 series machines. Read here about Atlanta Local Zone machine support.
Clean up
When you are finished doing hands-on with Local Zone, delete the resources in the Local Zone. Then contact AWS Support to disable it.
Summary
AWS Local Zones provide specialized infrastructure that brings AWS services closer to end-users, enabling low-latency and high-performance workloads. By leveraging Local Zones, businesses can enhance their applications' performance, comply with data residency requirements, and improve overall user experience. Whether it's media production, gaming, healthcare, financial services, or AR/VR, AWS Local Zones offers versatile solutions for various industry needs.
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