Cloud

In early 2022, AWS announced a new element to its cloud network infrastructure: the local zone.

With increased focus on moving cloud services closer to end-users, the local zone provides low-latency access to applications running closer to customers.

Google offers a similar service with its dedicated interconnect service, an option to connect to a low-latency colocation facility that provides latencies of less than 5 milliseconds between the workloads in a specified region and the on-ramp location.

OVH launched the same local zone service in the first quarter of 2024, and Microsoft joined in as well with their extended zone service launched in the summer of 2024.

Here's how these services differ—and how many have launched.

In November, we unveiled our new Market Connectivity Score (MCS) and dropped our first public rankings of the top ten most connected and fastest-growing cities in the world.

Because we update the MCS quarterly, it's time to see how those rankings have changed.