AWS Compute
Local Zones
Place compute, storage, and database resources closer to large population centers
AWS Local Zones are infrastructure deployments that place a subset of AWS services in metropolitan areas outside of AWS Regions. They allow you to run latency-sensitive applications closer to large population centers - delivering single-digit millisecond latency to end users - while still using the same AWS APIs, tools, and console.
How Local Zones Work
A Local Zone is an extension of an AWS Region. It appears as an additional Availability Zone in the VPC console. You opt-in to enable a Local Zone, create a subnet in it, and launch instances there.
- Local Zones are connected to the parent region via AWS's private network with high-bandwidth, low-latency links
- Instances in a Local Zone have low-latency access to users in the same metro area via the public internet
- The parent region handles the control plane, IAM, and services not available in the Local Zone
- Available in 30+ cities worldwide: Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, and international cities
Available Services
Local Zones support a subset of AWS services. Core services available include:
- Compute: EC2 (select instance types), Auto Scaling
- Storage: EBS (gp2, io1), EFS
- Networking: VPC, subnets, security groups, Direct Connect, ALB
- Database: RDS (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB), ElastiCache
- Containers: ECS, EKS
- Not available: Lambda, S3, most managed services. These continue to run in the parent region.
For services not available in the Local Zone, your application makes a call back to the parent region. Design your architecture so latency-critical operations use Local Zone resources and less time-sensitive operations use the parent region.
Use Cases and Architecture Patterns
- Media and entertainment: real-time video production, live streaming ingest, content creation tools for studio/broadcast teams in major cities
- Gaming: low-latency game servers for players in a specific metro area
- Financial trading: regional trading applications with sub-10ms order execution for local exchanges
- Healthcare: imaging applications where DICOM workloads need to stay within a city for data residency or latency reasons
- Hybrid deployments: extend existing VPCs into a city without setting up an Outposts rack
| Local Zones | Outposts | Wavelength | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | AWS-operated, major cities | Your own facility | Inside telecom carrier |
| Target user | Metro end users (internet) | On-premises systems | 5G mobile devices |
| Infrastructure owner | AWS | You (managed by AWS) | Carrier (managed by AWS) |
| Setup | Opt-in, create subnet | AWS ships rack to you | Opt-in, create subnet |
Interview Focus Points
- 1What is a Local Zone and how does it differ from an Availability Zone?
- 2Local Zones vs Outposts vs Wavelength - when would you choose each?
- 3What services are NOT available in Local Zones and how do you architect around this?
- 4How do you enable and use a Local Zone in your VPC?