A global e-commerce company uses AWS for its application infrastructure. The company's legal department mandates that all customer data must be stored and processed within the customer's home region (data residency requirement), but the application needs to provide a consistent global user experience. The SysOps Administrator is tasked with designing a solution for data storage that meets these requirements while ensuring high availability and disaster recovery. Which storage strategy should be recommended?
- AUse Amazon S3 buckets with Cross-Region Replication enabled for all data.
- BUtilize AWS Global Accelerator to direct traffic to regional S3 buckets and RDS instances, with data stored locally in each region.
- CImplement a global database solution using Amazon DynamoDB Global Tables.
- DDeploy Amazon RDS databases in Multi-AZ configuration within each customer's home region.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Utilize AWS Global Accelerator to direct traffic to regional S3 buckets and RDS instances, with data stored locally in each region.
AWS Global Accelerator directs user traffic to the nearest healthy endpoint, providing a consistent global experience. By directing users to regional S3 buckets and RDS instances, data can be stored locally within the customer's home region, satisfying data residency, while still offering high availability within each region and improving performance globally.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Cross-Region Replication moves data out of the home region, violating data residency requirements.
- C. DynamoDB Global Tables automatically replicate data across specified regions, which violates strict data residency requirements that mandate data *must not leave* a specific region.
- D. Multi-AZ RDS ensures high availability within a region but doesn't address the global user experience or how data is routed to specific regions based on customer location.
Global Accelerator for Data Residency
AWS Global Accelerator, combined with regional deployments, can route user traffic to the nearest healthy regional endpoint where data is stored locally, satisfying data residency requirements while providing a global application footprint.
- Provides static IP addresses and intelligent routing for global performance.
- Allows data to remain within specific geographic boundaries.
- Requires separate, independent deployments in each required region.
- Addresses both global user experience and data residency.
Memory trick: Global Accelerator routes your requests, local data residency for your guests!