Yes, the AWS region you select for Amazon Bedrock directly impacts performance, particularly latency. When you run Bedrock in a region geographically closer to your users, network requests travel shorter distances, reducing the time it takes for data to move between your application and the service. For example, if your user base is primarily in Europe, deploying Bedrock in the eu-west-1 (Ireland) or eu-central-1 (Frankfurt) regions will likely result in lower latency compared to using a region in the United States. This is because each AWS region is a separate physical data center cluster, and network latency increases with distance.
AWS’s global infrastructure uses high-speed fiber-optic networks, but even with optimized routing, physical distance remains a key factor. For instance, a user in Tokyo accessing Bedrock in us-east-1 (Northern Virginia) could experience 150–200ms latency due to trans-Pacific data travel. Moving the workload to ap-northeast-1 (Tokyo) might cut this to 10–20ms. However, Bedrock’s availability varies by region—some newer or specialized regions may not support it. You’ll need to verify service availability in your target region via the AWS Management Console or API before deployment.
To optimize latency, first identify the regions closest to your users and confirm Bedrock support. Use tools like AWS’s CloudPing or third-party services to test latency from user locations to candidate regions. If your users are globally distributed, consider a multi-region architecture, though this adds complexity in data synchronization and cost management. Note that data residency requirements (e.g., GDPR) might also influence region choice. In summary: prioritize proximity, validate service availability, and test real-world performance to balance latency, cost, and compliance.