[dmourati]

Note, a region is not a data center. A region is a collection of two or more Availability Zones (AZ). You can think of an AZ as a data center.

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/images/aw...

[thirsteh]

But even an AZ is not necessarily one physical data center; it may be many.

[dmourati]

Agree, but it is somewhat unclear.

[vacri]

There's always at least three - there's a 'hidden' datacentre in each region if you can only see two AZs.

[tiernano]

for example eu-west-1: AWS bought that big warehouse in Tallaght, and it is somewhat operational, but not "live". You cant select it.