Cloud Topology

Definition

The arrangement and interconnection of cloud resources, services, and networks that make up a cloud infrastructure deployment.

Use Cases

• Uber: Multi-Region Ride Matching — Designed a cloud topology spanning multiple regions with active-active deployments to ensure ride matching works even during regional outages (Achieved 99.99% availability for their core ride-matching service across 70+ countries)

Provider Equivalents

• AWS: Regions, Availability Zones, VPCs
• Azure: Regions, Availability Zones, VNets
• GCP: Regions, Zones, VPCs
• OCI: Regions, Availability Domains, VCNs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between cloud topology and network topology?

Cloud topology is broader — it encompasses the entire arrangement of cloud resources including compute, storage, and networking. Network topology specifically focuses on how network components like VPCs, subnets, and gateways are connected.

How does cloud topology affect application performance?

Resource placement within the topology directly impacts latency. Placing compute and database resources in the same availability zone minimizes network latency, while spreading across zones improves resilience. Multi-region topologies serve global users with lower latency.

Category: general

Difficulty: intermediate

Related Terms

• VPC
• Region
• Availability Zone

See Also

• Architecture Diagram
• Reference Architecture