AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty (ANS-C01)Network DesignMedium
A global media company uses AWS for its content delivery platform. They need to optimize the routing of user requests to the nearest healthy application endpoint across multiple AWS regions. The solution should dynamically route traffic based on both geographic proximity and real-time application health. Which Amazon Route 53 routing policy should be configured?
- AFailover routing policy
- BSimple routing policy
- CLatency routing policy
- DGeolocation routing policy
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Latency routing policy
The Latency routing policy routes requests to the region that provides the lowest latency for the user. When combined with health checks, it ensures that traffic is directed to the nearest *healthy* endpoint, optimizing both proximity and availability.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Failover routing policy is for active-passive setups, not for optimizing based on proximity or latency across multiple active regions.
- B. Simple routing is for single resources and does not support health checks or intelligent routing.
- D. Geolocation routing routes based on the user's geographic location. While it considers proximity, it doesn't inherently factor in real-time network latency, which can vary. Latency routing is more dynamic for 'nearest healthy' overall.
Route 53 Latency Routing
A Route 53 routing policy that routes user requests to the AWS region that provides the lowest network latency for the requesting user.
- Optimizes user experience by connecting them to the closest performing endpoint.
- Requires multiple resource record sets with the same name and type, each for a different region.
- Often combined with health checks to ensure traffic is only sent to healthy endpoints.
- Dynamically routes based on measured latency, which can differ from pure geographic distance.
Memory trick: Route 53's Policies: Simple, Failover, Geo, Latency, Multi-Value, Weighted – Choose Your Path!