Optimize geographic placement of workloads based on their networking requirements

Optimizing the geographic placement of workloads is crucial for minimizing the carbon footprint of network traffic. It helps reduce latency and energy consumption, aligning resource usage more effectively with demand. By shortening data travel distances, organizations can decrease their total networking resources while better serving client needs.

Best Practices

Choose Regions and Availability Zones to Minimize Network Transit

• Ensure your workloads are deployed in the regions that minimize network traffic, both distance and number of hops, to reduce energy consumption in transit. Evaluate the proximity of your customer base and data sources to the chosen AWS Region. Select Availability Zones that balance performance requirements with sustainability priorities.

Leverage Edge Services and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

• Place static resources closer to end users to reduce latency and network travel distances. Use Amazon CloudFront or similar services to cache content at edge locations, minimizing data transfers from the origin. Monitor usage patterns and distribute high-traffic content to further optimize resource usage while reducing environmental impact.

Optimize Intra-Region and Cross-Region Traffic

• Architect your workloads to limit unnecessary cross-region data transfers and replication. Where possible, use local data processing and storage to eliminate long-distance network hops. Regularly evaluate data exchange patterns across Zones and Regions. Consolidate data in fewer Regions, removing unneeded replication and balancing compliance with sustainability.

Adopt Serverless Architectures Where Feasible

• Consider serverless options, such as AWS Lambda, that automatically place compute resources in optimally located facilities. This approach scales on demand, reducing idle resources and unnecessary networking overhead. Monitor function invocation patterns and fine-tune configurations to further minimize network usage and resource waste.

Continuously Monitor and Evolve Placement Decisions

• Regularly review workload performance and resource consumption metrics to ensure geographic placement remains optimized. Use AWS CloudWatch, AWS Cost Explorer, and other AWS tools to identify changing traffic patterns. Adjust workload placement and capacity in response to usage changes or emerging service features that can enhance sustainability.

Questions to ask your team

• Have you evaluated your application’s primary user locations to ensure workloads are deployed geographically close to reduce network distance?
• Do you regularly review your workload’s data transfer patterns to confirm that the chosen regions minimize network traffic and associated resource consumption?
• Have you considered how peering, caching, or local edge services might reduce network distance and improve sustainability?
• Are you leveraging multi-region or edge deployment strategies to minimize latency and conserve energy required for long-distance data transfers?
• Do you monitor metrics related to network distance (such as latency or bandwidth) to identify opportunities for workload re-placement or consolidation?
• Have you examined any compliance, data sovereignty, or other requirements that might influence optimal workload placement for sustainability?

Who should be doing this?

Sustainability Lead

• Define sustainability objectives and metrics to evaluate workload placement
• Promote best practices for energy efficiency and resource optimization
• Review geographic distribution strategies to align with organizational sustainability goals

Infrastructure Architect

• Identify and evaluate cloud regions and services that reduce data transfer distances
• Design workload deployments that balance performance needs with environmental impact
• Continuously assess resource usage to ensure alignment with demand and sustainability targets

Network Engineer

• Optimize network routing and configurations to minimize latency and energy consumption
• Conduct regular network performance assessments to validate placement decisions
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure robust, efficient connectivity across geographic locations

DevOps Engineer

• Implement and maintain automated provisioning for geographically distributed resources
• Monitor usage patterns to dynamically scale resources according to demand
• Ensure continuous integration and delivery pipelines support resource efficiency and sustainability objectives

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Geographic Workload Placement Policy: A formal policy outlining guidelines for selecting optimal regions and cloud services to minimize network travel and reduce environmental impact.
• Network Traffic Optimization Checklist: A concise checklist to ensure workload placement decisions account for proximity to users, latency requirements, and overall sustainability objectives.
• Regional Deployment Plan: A structured plan detailing processes and strategies for evaluating, selecting, and deploying workloads across different regions to align with the organization’s sustainability goals.

Cloud Services

AWS

• AWS Global Accelerator: Improves performance of your applications by routing traffic to the optimal endpoint, reducing latency and network travel distance.
• Amazon CloudFront: Offers a globally distributed content delivery network (CDN) that places content closer to users, reducing latency and network resource usage.
• Amazon Route 53: Provides a highly available, scalable DNS service to route users to the nearest resources, minimizing network distance and optimizing performance.

Azure

• Azure Traffic Manager: Distributes network traffic across regions to improve application responsiveness and minimize travel distance for users.
• Azure Front Door: Provides global routing and delivery capabilities to place content closer to users, reducing latency and network load.
• Azure Monitor: Helps analyze performance metrics and identify opportunities for adjusting workloads by tracking network usage and latency across regions.

Google Cloud Platform

• Google Cloud Load Balancing: Distributes traffic across multiple regions, ensuring that requests are served from the closest location.
• Google Cloud CDN: Caches content at edge locations worldwide, reducing latency and decreasing network resources required for content delivery.
• Google Cloud Interconnect: Provides high-speed connectivity to Google’s network, helping optimize data travel distances and network usage.