Regional Availability
Alactic AGI can be deployed in multiple Azure regions worldwide. This guide helps you select the optimal region based on service availability, latency, compliance, and cost considerations.
Service Requirements by Region
Alactic AGI requires these Azure services in your selected region:
- Azure OpenAI Service (GPT-4o or GPT-4o mini models)
- Azure Cosmos DB (Serverless tier)
- Azure Storage (Standard LRS)
- Virtual Machines (D-series or B-series)
- Azure Key Vault
Critical: Not all services are available in all regions.
Fully Supported Regions
These regions support all required services for Alactic AGI deployment:
Americas
East US (Virginia)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Excellent (D, E, F series)
- Latency from US East Coast: <5ms
- Recommended For: US-based deployments, lowest latency for East Coast
East US 2 (Virginia)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Excellent
- Latency from US East Coast: <10ms
- Recommended For: Redundancy with East US, US East Coast
West US (California)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from US West Coast: <5ms
- Recommended For: US West Coast deployments
West US 2 (Washington)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Excellent
- Latency from US West Coast: <10ms
- Recommended For: Pacific Northwest, Alaska
West US 3 (Arizona)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from US Southwest: <5ms
- Recommended For: Southwest US, low-cost alternative
Canada Central (Toronto)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from Canada: <5ms
- Recommended For: Canadian data residency requirements
Brazil South (São Paulo)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o mini, Embeddings (GPT-4o limited)
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Moderate
- Latency from South America: <20ms
- Recommended For: South American deployments, Brazilian data residency
Europe
West Europe (Netherlands)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Excellent
- Latency from Western Europe: <5ms
- Recommended For: European deployments, GDPR compliance
North Europe (Ireland)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from Northern Europe: <10ms
- Recommended For: UK, Ireland, Northern Europe
UK South (London)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Excellent
- Latency from UK: <5ms
- Recommended For: UK data residency, GDPR compliance
France Central (Paris)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from France: <5ms
- Recommended For: French data residency
Germany West Central (Frankfurt)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from Germany: <5ms
- Recommended For: German data residency
Sweden Central (Gävle)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from Nordic countries: <10ms
- Recommended For: Nordic data residency
Asia Pacific
East Asia (Hong Kong)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from Hong Kong: <5ms
- Recommended For: Hong Kong, Southern China
Southeast Asia (Singapore)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Excellent
- Latency from Southeast Asia: <10ms
- Recommended For: ASEAN countries, Singapore data residency
Australia East (Sydney)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from Australia: <5ms
- Recommended For: Australia, New Zealand
Japan East (Tokyo)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Excellent
- Latency from Japan: <5ms
- Recommended For: Japan data residency
Korea Central (Seoul)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, Embeddings
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from Korea: <5ms
- Recommended For: South Korea data residency
India Central (Pune)
- Status: Fully Supported
- Azure OpenAI: GPT-4o mini, Embeddings (GPT-4o limited)
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from India: <10ms
- Recommended For: India data residency
Middle East & Africa
UAE North (Dubai)
- Status: Partial Support
- Azure OpenAI: Limited availability (check current status)
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Good
- Latency from UAE: <5ms
- Recommended For: UAE, Middle East (verify OpenAI availability)
South Africa North (Johannesburg)
- Status: Partial Support
- Azure OpenAI: Limited availability
- Cosmos DB: Serverless available
- VM Availability: Moderate
- Latency from South Africa: <10ms
- Recommended For: South Africa (verify OpenAI availability)
Regions with Limited Support
Azure OpenAI Not Available
These regions do not support Azure OpenAI Service:
- Central US
- South Central US
- West Central US
- North Central US
- Norway East
- Switzerland North
- UAE Central
Workaround: Deploy in nearby supported region, use regional data replication.
Cosmos DB Serverless Not Available
These regions do not support Cosmos DB Serverless tier:
- Gov regions (US Gov, China)
- Some emerging regions
Workaround: Use provisioned throughput (higher cost) or deploy in supported region.
Region Selection Decision Factors
1. Latency Requirements
User Location vs. Region Latency:
| User Location | Recommended Region | Typical Latency |
|---|---|---|
| US East Coast | East US, East US 2 | <10ms |
| US West Coast | West US, West US 2 | <10ms |
| Canada | Canada Central | <10ms |
| UK | UK South | <10ms |
| Western Europe | West Europe, France Central | <15ms |
| Germany | Germany West Central | <10ms |
| Nordic | Sweden Central | <15ms |
| Singapore | Southeast Asia | <10ms |
| Australia | Australia East | <10ms |
| Japan | Japan East | <10ms |
| Korea | Korea Central | <10ms |
| India | India Central | <20ms |
| Hong Kong | East Asia | <10ms |
| Brazil | Brazil South | <20ms |
| Middle East | UAE North | <20ms |
Performance Impact:
- <20ms: Excellent user experience
- 20-50ms: Good user experience
- 50-100ms: Acceptable for batch processing
- >100ms: Noticeable delays, not recommended
2. Data Residency and Compliance
GDPR Compliance (EU Data Residency):
- West Europe (Netherlands)
- North Europe (Ireland)
- UK South (London)
- France Central (Paris)
- Germany West Central (Frankfurt)
- Sweden Central (Sweden)
Country-Specific Data Residency:
- UK: UK South
- France: France Central
- Germany: Germany West Central
- Canada: Canada Central
- Australia: Australia East
- Japan: Japan East
- Korea: Korea Central
- Brazil: Brazil South
3. Cost Variations
Azure pricing varies by region. Examples for Standard_D2s_v3 VM:
| Region | VM Cost/Month | Relative Cost |
|---|---|---|
| East US | $140 | Baseline |
| West US | $140 | Same |
| West Europe | $154 | +10% |
| UK South | $161 | +15% |
| Australia East | $182 | +30% |
| Japan East | $175 | +25% |
| Brazil South | $210 | +50% |
Cost Optimization: Choose US East or West US for lowest infrastructure costs if compliance allows.
4. Service Availability and Quotas
Azure OpenAI Capacity: Some regions have limited Azure OpenAI capacity due to high demand:
- Check current availability before deployment
- Have backup region selected
- Request quota increase if needed
VM Quota: Default quotas vary by region and subscription type:
- Standard subscription: 10-20 vCPUs per region
- Enterprise subscription: Higher quotas
- Request increase via Azure Portal if needed
5. High Availability and Disaster Recovery
Multi-Region Deployment (Enterprise Only): Deploy in two regions for redundancy:
Primary-Secondary Pairs:
- East US + West US (US coverage)
- West Europe + North Europe (EU coverage)
- Southeast Asia + East Asia (APAC coverage)
Active-Active: Traffic distributed across both regions
Active-Passive: Secondary region standby, failover on primary failure
How to Verify Region Support
Method 1: Azure Portal
- Go to Azure Portal
- Click "+ Create a resource"
- Search for "Azure OpenAI Service"
- Check "Region" dropdown for availability
Method 2: Azure CLI
# Check Azure OpenAI availability
az cognitiveservices account list-skus \
--kind OpenAI \
--location eastus
# Check Cosmos DB availability
az cosmosdb locations list \
--query "[?name=='East US']"
# Check VM availability
az vm list-skus \
--location eastus \
--size Standard_D \
--output table
Method 3: Azure Resource Explorer
- Visit resources.azure.com
- Navigate to Providers
- Check service availability by region
Regional Performance Benchmarks
Average response times for document processing:
| Region | PDF Processing | URL Scraping | Model Inference |
|---|---|---|---|
| East US | 2.1s | 1.8s | 0.4s |
| West US | 2.3s | 2.0s | 0.4s |
| West Europe | 2.4s | 2.1s | 0.5s |
| UK South | 2.2s | 1.9s | 0.5s |
| Southeast Asia | 2.8s | 2.4s | 0.6s |
| Australia East | 3.1s | 2.7s | 0.7s |
| Japan East | 2.6s | 2.3s | 0.5s |
Note: Times measured from VM to Azure services within same region.
Changing Regions After Deployment
Important: You cannot change the region of an existing deployment. To move regions:
-
Export Data
- Backup Cosmos DB data
- Download any stored documents
-
Delete Current Deployment
- Delete resource group
- Or delete individual resources
-
Redeploy in New Region
- Follow Marketplace Deployment guide
- Select new target region
-
Import Data
- Restore Cosmos DB data
- Upload documents to new storage
Downtime: Plan for 30-60 minutes of downtime during migration.
Best Practices
For Production Deployments:
- Choose region closest to majority of users
- Verify Azure OpenAI capacity before deployment
- Consider data residency requirements
- Plan for disaster recovery if critical
- Monitor latency after deployment
For Development/Testing:
- Use cheapest region (typically East US)
- Data residency not critical
- Can redeploy easily if needed
For Multi-Tenant SaaS:
- Deploy in multiple regions
- Route users to nearest deployment
- Use Azure Front Door for global routing