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:
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Provides redundancy across regions in support of business continuity and disaster recovery architectures.
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Gives users the control to store their data in geographic regions closest to their processing workloads for higher performance.
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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
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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.
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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.