A dual-region is a storage location type that specifies two regions within the same continent. Objects stored in buckets that use dual-regions are replicated in each of the regions that make up the dual-region. The time it takes an object to be replicated between the two regions is determined by the bucket's replication setting.
Benefits of dual-region storage
Dual-regions provide the following benefits:
Provides redundancy across regions in support of business continuity and disaster recovery architectures.
Gives users the control to store their data in geographic regions closest to their processing workloads for higher performance.
Gives users the power to choose where their data is stored to help address compliance requirements. For example, addressing industry-specific requirements regarding the physical distance between copies of the data.
Restrictions and limitations
Not all regions are available to use in a dual-region, and not all pairings are valid. For a list of available region pairings, see the dual-region availability table. Attempting to create a bucket using an invalid pairing, such as regions in separate continents, returns an error.
- If the regions you want to pair are not available as a dual-region, consider creating a separate bucket in each region and using Storage Transfer Service Event-driven transfers to keep the buckets in sync.
A bucket's geographic location is set at bucket creation and cannot be changed at a later time. If you want to use a dual-region for data presently stored in a region or multi-region, you must first transfer the data to a dual-region bucket. For more information, see Move and rename buckets.
What's next
- Use dual-regions.
- See dual-region storage pricing and inter-region replication pricing.
- Learn more about data replication in Cloud Storage.
- Use Event-driven transfers in the Storage Transfer Service to replicate data across any pair of Cloud Storage locations.