I've heard some concerning things about the AWS us-west-1 region. It seems like there are only two availability zones (AZs) available for new customers, and that's not sufficient for a project I'm working on where we need to set up around 200 EC2 instances. I was told that growth in Northern California is limited due to factors like power availability, land scarcity, or cooling issues. My client isn't interested in switching to us-west-2 due to latency concerns and is even looking at Azure and Oracle as alternatives. Does anyone have any insights on AWS's plans for improving us-west-1 or if it's stuck like this forever?
5 Answers
If latency is such a big concern, either they need to reevaluate their needs or keep searching for a cloud solution that fits better. California to Oregon shouldn't be a massive jump unless they’re really tight on performance requirements.
Yeah, I’ve heard some pretty rough things about it, too. It’s costly and not expanding, there are better options out there. For placing your workloads, it might be safer to look elsewhere if you're looking for speed and reliability.
Honestly, us-west-1 feels like it’s on life support. There hasn't been much investment to expand. I'd recommend migrating to us-west-2—it's much more reliable in the long run!
Your concerns are valid, and while AWS might technically claim three AZs are available, it doesn't seem like they're fully accessible for everyone. In a lot of cases, companies like AWS have to balance costs with available space in regions like this. It's tricky!
Absolutely! And in cases where critical applications are involved, having a solid number of AZs is essential.
The consensus is that us-west-1 is pretty much stagnant. It's one of the older regions and rumored to be renting out rack space instead of owning data centers. Also, the cost of power and property in California drives up expenses. There is supposedly a hidden third AZ, but it's not reliable and lacks many features. You might want to check out us-west-2, my company switched and we haven't looked back since! Latency isn't as bad as you might think.
Definitely agree! A friend directed me to the AWS feedback page; maybe it’s worth voicing our thoughts there.
They should seriously consider either expanding the region or phasing it out if it can't meet modern needs.