Discover how Microsoft Azure's global infrastructure spans continents, regions, and availability zones to deliver high availability, fault tolerance, and compliance. Learn theory and practice with hands-on Azure Portal exercises using your free trial account.
Crafted with care by Venu Vallepu
Navigate Azure's interactive global infrastructure map
See which services are available in different regions
Discover how location affects pricing
See AZ support in your preferred regions
Check regulatory compliance by region
These labs are completely free - we'll only be viewing information, not creating resources that cost money. Perfect for learning!
Imagine you're building an app that needs to serve users in New York, London, and Tokyo simultaneously with lightning-fast response times, while ensuring data stays in each country for legal compliance, and maintaining 99.99% uptime even if an entire city loses power. This is exactly what Azure's global infrastructure makes possible through a carefully designed hierarchy of geographies, regions, availability zones, and datacenters.
Largest boundary (e.g., United States, Europe)
East US, West Europe
Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3
West US, North Europe
Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3
Users in Tokyo get <100ms response times from Japan East region, not 300ms from US West
EU data stays in European geography, US government data stays in US government regions
Hurricane hits East US? Your app automatically failovers to West US region pair
Different regions have different pricing - choose wisely for non-latency-sensitive workloads
Company: Global e-commerce platform serving 50 million users across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions.
US Geography (East US, West US), Europe (West Europe, North Europe), Asia (Southeast Asia, East Asia)
East US ↔ West US, West Europe ↔ North Europe for automatic disaster recovery
Deploy across 3 AZs in each region for 99.99% VM uptime SLA
Traffic Manager routes users to nearest healthy region automatically
Let's start by exploring Azure's global infrastructure through their interactive map. This will give you a visual understanding of where Azure's datacenters are located worldwide and which services are available in each region.
Navigate to the Azure Global Infrastructure page to see all regions and datacenters worldwide.
💡 Tip: Open this in a new tab so you can follow along with the lesson
Click on different regions on the world map to see:
Click on regions in different geographies and notice:
Look for the "Region pairs" section or information to see which regions are paired for disaster recovery.
What to look for: Notice how paired regions are always within the same geography but geographically separated.
As you explore, write down which regions are closest to your location and which services are available there. This will help you make informed decisions later!
Think of Azure Geographies as legal and regulatory boundaries rather than just physical locations. They exist to ensure that your data never crosses certain borders without your explicit permission. This is crucial for organizations that must comply with laws like GDPR in Europe, data sovereignty requirements in China, or security regulations for US government agencies.
A geography is a discrete market that preserves data residency and compliance boundaries
Ensures customer data remains within specific legal jurisdictions
Data never crosses geography boundaries during replication or disaster recovery
Each geography targets specific market needs and regulatory requirements
8 regions including East US, West US, Central US
8 regions including West Europe, North Europe, France Central
10 regions including Southeast Asia, East Asia, Japan East
Operated by 21Vianet, separate from global Azure
Special sovereign cloud with data trustee model
Company: European pharmaceutical company with patient data subject to strict GDPR requirements and medical device regulations.
Deploy in West Europe (primary) and North Europe (disaster recovery)
Data never leaves Europe geography, even during automated failovers
ISO 27001, SOC 1/2, GDPR compliance built-in
Complete data location tracking and audit logs for regulators
Not all Azure services are available in every region. Let's explore which services are available where, and understand how this affects your architecture decisions.
Navigate to the Azure Products by Region page to compare service availability.
Try filtering by these common services:
Select and compare these regions:
Pay attention to which service categories are available:
If you need AI services but they're not available in your preferred region, you might need to: • Use a different region for AI services • Wait for service to be available • Use alternative services
Azure regions are the physical locations where your applications actually run. Each region contains one or more datacenters connected by a dedicated low-latency network. When you deploy a virtual machine in "East US," it's physically running in a Microsoft datacenter in Virginia. Understanding regions is crucial for optimizing performance, managing costs, and ensuring your applications are close to your users.
One or more datacenters within the same geographic area (typically within 300 miles)
High-speed, redundant connections to Azure backbone and internet
Redundant power sources, backup generators, and climate control systems
24/7 security, biometric access, surveillance, and environmental monitoring
Primary US region, all services available
Primary EU region, GDPR compliant
APAC hub, serves 16 countries
Low latency for Japanese users
Primary Australia region
Best Choice: Select a location above
Azure pricing varies by region due to local costs, regulations, and market conditions. Let's explore how location affects your costs using the Azure Pricing Calculator.
Access the official Azure pricing calculator to estimate costs.
Click "Virtual Machines" and configure:
Change the "Region" dropdown and note the price for:
Add "Storage Accounts" (100 GB) and see how storage pricing varies by region too.
Region pairs are Azure's insurance policy against disasters. Each Azure region is paired with another region within the same geography, at least 300 miles away. This pairing ensures that if a hurricane, earthquake, or major power outage affects one region, your applications can automatically failover to the paired region. It's like having a backup datacenter that's always ready, without any effort from you.
At least 300 miles (480 km) apart to avoid simultaneous disasters
Both regions within same geography for compliance and data residency
Only one region in a pair is updated at a time
Some Azure services automatically replicate to paired regions
Virginia ↔ California (2,400 miles apart)
Netherlands ↔ Ireland (700 miles apart)
Tokyo ↔ Osaka (250 miles apart)
Sydney ↔ Melbourne (550 miles apart)
Availability Zones are like having multiple datacenters within a single region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Think of them as insurance against smaller-scale failures: if one datacenter loses power, your application keeps running in the other zones. This is how Azure achieves 99.99% uptime SLAs - by eliminating single points of failure within a region.
Separate buildings or data halls within the same region
Connected by private fiber networks with <2ms latency
Failure in one zone doesn't affect other zones
99.99% uptime SLA when deployed across multiple zones
Datacenter A
Datacenter B
Datacenter C
Not all Azure regions support Availability Zones. Let's explore which regions have AZ support and understand how to check this information for your architecture planning.
Sign in to your Azure Portal to explore availability zone information.
💡 Use your free trial account credentials
We'll use VM creation to see availability zone options:
In the VM creation form, change the "Region" and observe the "Availability zone" dropdown:
Click "See all sizes" to explore which VM sizes support AZ deployment.
Important: Close the VM creation without clicking "Create" to avoid charges!
Always verify AZ support in your target region before committing to a high-availability architecture. Some newer or specialized regions may not support availability zones yet.
In today's regulatory landscape, where your data lives can determine whether your business succeeds or fails. Azure's geography-based approach ensures compliance with data sovereignty laws, privacy regulations, and industry standards worldwide. From GDPR in Europe to HIPAA in healthcare, Azure's infrastructure is designed to meet the most stringent requirements without compromising performance or functionality.
Azure Germany operated with data trustee model under German law for maximum privacy protection.
Azure China operated by 21Vianet ensures compliance with Chinese data sovereignty laws.
Azure Government cloud provides FedRAMP High authorization for federal agencies.
Azure Australia Central regions provide PROTECTED-level hosting for government workloads.
Let's explore Azure's compliance offerings to understand which certifications and standards are available in different regions and services.
Visit the official Microsoft Trust Center to explore compliance information.
Click on "Compliance offerings" or search for specific standards:
For each compliance standard, check:
Visit the Service Trust Portal for detailed compliance documentation.
Compliance is a shared responsibility. While Azure provides the compliant infrastructure, you must configure your applications and data handling practices correctly to maintain compliance.
Always start with legal and regulatory requirements
Choose regions closest to your users for best performance
Verify required services are available in chosen regions
Use availability zones for mission-critical applications
Balance performance needs with regional pricing differences
Excellent work! You now understand Azure's global infrastructure hierarchy and have hands-on experience exploring regions, services, pricing, and compliance. Next, we'll dive into Azure subscriptions, resource groups, and management hierarchies to organize and manage your Azure resources effectively.