AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner / Databases & Analytics

DynamoDB Global Tables

🌍 DynamoDB Global Tables

As apps grow globally, users far from your table's Region face higher latency.

💡 Global Tables solve this by replicating your table across multiple Regions — users read/write to the nearest copy, and all copies stay in sync.

🎯 What You'll Learn

  • What Global Tables are

  • How they improve performance

  • How data replicates across Regions

  • What active-active replication means

  • What to know for the exam

🎯 Exam Tip

  • ✅ Replicates data across multiple AWS Regions

  • ✅ Gives users low-latency read/write access worldwide

  • ✅ Replication is active-active — write to any participating Region

  • ❌ No implementation/config details needed for the exam

🧠 Core Idea

If your table lives only in US East (N. Virginia) (us-east-1), European users pay extra latency reaching across the ocean — even on AWS's fast network.

Global Tables fix this by keeping synchronized copies in multiple Regions. Add a replica in Europe (Paris) (eu-west-3) and:

  • North America → reads/writes to US East

  • Europe → reads/writes to Paris

  • Both get low latency by hitting their nearest Region

AWS keeps every Region in sync automatically — a change in one Region replicates to all others.

🌍 Example

🔄 Active-Active Replication

Every participating Region can both read and write — not just one primary Region accepting writes.

Example: a US update replicates to Paris; a later Paris write replicates back to US East. Every Region stays active, keeping global apps fast everywhere.

🌎 Multiple Regions

Not limited to two — a table can replicate across up to 10 Regions, giving users worldwide a nearby copy while AWS keeps everything synchronized.

📝 Summary

  • Global Tables replicate across multiple AWS Regions

  • Users get low-latency access to the nearest copy

  • Data syncs automatically across all Regions

  • Every Region supports read and write — active-active replication

  • 🎯 Exam takeaway: Global Tables = low-latency global access via active-active multi-Region replication