This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Cloudev
Introduction
If you’re building a cloud app and you pick a region solely based on geography, you’re missing half the story. I recently used the tool CloudPing.info to validate latency from East Africa to AWS regions — and the results changed my architecture. I’ll show you how I did it and how you can too.
Why I picked this tool
CloudPing.info let me run latency tests from my browser to dozens of AWS regions instantly. No complex CLI-setup, no VPNs required. It gave me real numbers for my exact location.
Cloudping
+1
Once I had those numbers, I could shortlist regions based on actual latency, not just map distance.
My step-by-step process
Navigate to cloudping.info
1.Click “HTTP Ping”
2.Wait for the region latency table
3.Note down the lowest latency regions from my physical location
4.Filter out regions that don’t meet compliance/data-residency rules
5.Check cost differences and service availability for those regions
6.Pick the primary region and backup region
7.Document the process and test failover scenarios
What I found
From Nairobi:
af-south-1 (Cape Town) → ~96 ms
me-south-1 (Bahrain) → ~82 ms
eu-central-1 (Frankfurt) → ~153 ms
Conclusion: Cape Town & Bahrain were clearly ahead latency-wise. But after checking compliance etc., Cape Town became primary and Frankfurt backup.
Tips & caveats
Run tests multiple times since network conditions fluctuate.
Note: Browser tests include browser/ISP overhead — backend infrastructure latency may differ.
Don’t pick region just because it’s lowest latency — check everything else (cost, services, compliance).
Use these results as input to a wider architecture decision framework.
Why this matters for Fintech
If you’re doing real-time transaction systems (payments, currency conversion, fraud detection) a 50 ms extra latency can mean slower conversions, increased risk, lower user satisfaction.
Using CloudPing.info helps you minimise that latency by choosing the region that measurably delivers lowest RTT from your user base.
Final words
Next time you’re asked “Which cloud region should we use?” don’t guess. Run CloudPing.info, gather data, use it to drive your choice.
A few minutes of testing now can save hours of troubleshooting and a lot of user frustration later
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Cloudev
Cloudev | Sciencx (2025-10-20T13:00:30+00:00) How I used CloudPing.info to pick the best AWS region for my users. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/10/20/how-i-used-cloudping-info-to-pick-the-best-aws-region-for-my-users/
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