What is an Availability Zone in cloud computing?

An Availability Zone is indeed defined as an isolated location within a data center region where public cloud services operate. This concept is crucial in cloud computing as it enables organizations to achieve high availability and resilience for their applications. Each Availability Zone is designed to be independent from others, meaning that a failure in one zone does not impact the availability of resources in another. This architectural strategy helps reduce the risk of downtime and enhances fault tolerance, thereby ensuring that applications remain accessible and operational.

In practice, utilizing multiple Availability Zones within a cloud service provider’s infrastructure allows businesses to implement redundancy and load balancing, further improving the reliability of their services. By dispersing resources across several zones, companies can also ensure that their data can be accessed and services can be delivered even in the event of a failure in any single zone. This model is central to modern cloud architecture and enables businesses to maintain operational continuity under various conditions.