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CONCEPT Cited by 1 source

Cross-Region backup

Definition

Cross-Region backup is backup / replication written to a different AWS Region from the source. The target Region is a fault-isolation boundary — AWS Regions are designed to be independent fault domains, so an event that takes out the source Region is highly unlikely to affect the target.

"Cross-Region backup and recovery are essential for disaster recovery. This helps to keep your workloads protected if an event causes your source Region to be unable to run your workload. AWS Regions are strong fault isolation boundaries, so the event in your source is highly unlikely to affect your recovery Region." (Source: sources/2026-03-31-aws-streamlining-access-to-dr-capabilities)

Primary AWS primitives

  • AWS Backup — cross-Region copy as a backup-plan rule; unified across resource types; closes native- service gaps (notably enabled cross-Region backup for DynamoDB which previously had none).
  • S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) — object-level replication for Amazon S3 buckets.
  • EBS snapshot copy cross-Region — EBS-native snapshot copy API.
  • RDS automated backups + cross-Region snapshot copy — for Amazon RDS.
  • Aurora Global Database — storage-level cross-Region replication with sub-second lag for Aurora.
  • AWS DRS — continuous block-level replication to a target Region for EC2 DR.

Orthogonal to cross-account

Cross-Region protects against natural / technical disasters. Cross-account backup protects against human-driven / compromise disasters (ransomware, malware, malicious insider). The high-assurance DR topology combines both — cross-Region copies written to a different account (clean-room account).

What cross-Region primitives don't span

Cross-Region primitives work within a single AWS partition. They do not work cross-partition (standard AWS ↔ GovCloud ↔ China ↔ European Sovereign Cloud); the entire cross-Region replication machinery is bounded by the partition. See patterns/cross-partition-failover and sources/2026-01-30-aws-sovereign-failover-design-digital-sovereignty.

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