# Region

Concept · [Cloud, hosting and security](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/cloud)

Also called: regions, cloud region, availability zone, availability zones, zone, data residency, data location

A geographic location where a [cloud provider](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/cloud-provider) groups its [data centers](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/data-center). What a customer creates in one region stays there unless the customer copies it elsewhere.

**For example:** A startup with customers in Oklahoma picks a region in the central United States. A customer in Germany later asks that their data be stored in a European region.

## Connects to (8)

- [Data center](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/data-center): A building that houses the computers, storage and network equipment that run online services, along with the power and cooling they need.
- [Cloud provider](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/cloud-provider): A company that rents out computing services, such as servers, storage and databases, over the internet and on demand.
- [Edge](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/edge): Running code and storing data in many locations close to users, instead of in one distant data center, mainly so responses arrive faster.
- [Compliance](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/compliance): Meeting the laws, regulations and standards that apply to a company.
- [Amazon Web Services](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/aws): Amazon's cloud provider, usually called AWS.
- [Google Cloud](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/gcp): Google's cloud provider.
- [Microsoft Azure](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/azure): Microsoft's cloud provider.
- [Amazon S3](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/amazon-s3): Amazon Web Services' object storage.

Map view: https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/region