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region-sweep-results.md

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Region Sweep Results

Date: 2026-01-31 Instance Type: m7i.large Technique: Cold launch across different AWS regions

Summary

Region API Pending→Running Boot→SSH Total
us-east-2 (Ohio) 2474ms 16511ms 2971ms 21956ms
us-west-2 (Oregon) 3827ms 16375ms 2632ms 22834ms
us-east-1 (N. Virginia) 3459ms 16580ms 3228ms 23267ms
ap-northeast-1 (Tokyo) 2654ms 16679ms 3996ms 23329ms
eu-west-1 (Ireland) 2544ms 17065ms 4463ms 24072ms

Fastest: us-east-2 (21956ms) Slowest: eu-west-1 (24072ms) Variance: 2116ms (9%)

Key Finding

Region has minimal impact on the core VM startup time.

Pending→Running is consistent across all regions:

  • Range: 16.4s - 16.9s
  • Variance: ~460ms (within measurement noise)

The total variance (1.5s) comes from:

  • API latency (network distance to region)
  • Boot→SSH latency (network distance for SSH)

Observations

  1. Pending→Running is region-independent - ~16.5s everywhere
  2. Closer regions have lower total time - Due to API/SSH network latency
  3. us-east-2 (Ohio) was fastest - Good balance of capacity + network
  4. Tokyo/Ireland slower - Network latency adds ~1.5s

Implications

  1. Region selection won't speed up VM startup - Only affects network latency
  2. Pick region for user proximity - Reduces API and SSH latency
  3. The 16s floor is global - AWS infrastructure overhead is consistent worldwide
  4. Multi-region warm pools - Would need pools in each region for latency

Network Latency Breakdown

The Boot→SSH variance (2.7s - 4.1s) correlates with physical distance:

  • us-west-2: 2.7s (closest to test location)
  • us-east-2: 3.0s
  • us-east-1: 3.4s
  • eu-west-1: 4.1s (transatlantic)
  • ap-northeast-1: 4.1s (transpacific)

Raw Data

Region                    API    Pending     Boot    Total
-------------------       ---    -------     ----    -----
us-east-2               2382ms     16789ms    2991ms   22162ms
us-west-2               3965ms     16406ms    2672ms   23043ms
us-east-1               3266ms     16803ms    3435ms   23504ms
eu-west-1               2755ms     16767ms    4111ms   23633ms
ap-northeast-1          2697ms     16868ms    4138ms   23703ms