Highly Available Multi-Region Platform Topologies

Welcome to Module 17, Advanced Systems & Scaling. In this lesson, we explore how to architect platforms that span multiple geographic regions.

Why Multi-Region?

Single-region architectures represent a single point of failure. Cloud providers occasionally experience region-wide outages due to power failures, networking misconfigurations, or natural disasters. Multi-region architectures ensure continuous availability even when an entire region goes offline.

Core Concepts

1. Global Load Balancing

Global load balancers distribute traffic across multiple regions based on user proximity (latency), region health, and capacity.

2. Failure Domains

Understanding how to isolate failures so they do not cascade across regions is critical.

3. Data Residency and Compliance

Multi-region deployments often need to account for strict data residency requirements, ensuring data stays within specific geopolitical boundaries.