What defines an AWS region?

The definition of an AWS region is best captured by the idea of it being an independent collection of computing resources. AWS regions are designed to provide geographical separation and fault tolerance, which allows customers to strategically distribute their resources based on various factors like data residency requirements, latency, and fault tolerance.

Each AWS region is made up of multiple Availability Zones, which are isolated from each other to ensure that a failure in one zone doesn’t impact the others. This architecture enables high availability and disaster recovery strategies for applications. Customers can deploy their applications across these different resources, ensuring efficient resource usage and enhancing their resilience.

While the other options do touch on aspects related to AWS regions—like high availability and geographical isolation—focusing on the region as an independent collection of computing resources encapsulates the broader organizational structure that AWS employs to deliver a wide range of services at scale.