cloudthinker-ai Multi-Region Deployment Skill
Plan multi-region deployment for {{ service_name }} across {{ primary_region }} and {{ secondary_regions }} ({{ topology }}).
Workflow
Step 1 — Region Strategy
REGION ARCHITECTURE
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Service: {{ service_name }}
Topology: {{ topology }}
Primary: {{ primary_region }}
Secondary: {{ secondary_regions }}
TOPOLOGY DECISION:
Active-Active:
- All regions serve production traffic simultaneously
- Requires conflict resolution for writes
- Lowest latency for global users
- Highest complexity and cost
Active-Passive:
- Primary handles all traffic, secondary is standby
- Simpler data consistency model
- Higher latency for remote users
- Lower cost, used primarily for DR
Selected: {{ topology }}
Justification: [why this topology was chosen]
Step 2 — Data Replication Strategy
DATA REPLICATION
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DATABASE:
[ ] Replication type: [synchronous / asynchronous / semi-sync]
[ ] Replication technology: [Aurora Global DB / DynamoDB Global Tables / CockroachDB / custom]
[ ] Consistency model: [strong / eventual / causal]
[ ] Conflict resolution: [last-writer-wins / region-primary / application-level]
[ ] Expected replication lag: ___ms
[ ] Maximum acceptable lag: ___ms
[ ] Replication monitoring configured
CACHE:
[ ] Cache strategy: [local per-region / replicated / independent]
[ ] Cache invalidation: [event-driven / TTL / hybrid]
[ ] Cache warm-up procedure for new regions
OBJECT STORAGE:
[ ] S3 cross-region replication configured
[ ] Replication scope: [full bucket / prefix-filtered]
[ ] Versioning enabled
MESSAGING / EVENTS:
[ ] Event replication: [Kafka MirrorMaker / SNS fan-out / EventBridge]
[ ] Event ordering guarantees: [per-partition / none]
[ ] Deduplication strategy for cross-region events
Step 3 — Traffic Routing
TRAFFIC ROUTING
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ROUTING METHOD:
[ ] GeoDNS (Route53 geolocation / latency-based routing)
[ ] Global load balancer (CloudFront, Global Accelerator)
[ ] Anycast DNS
[ ] Application-level routing
ROUTING RULES:
| User Region | Target Region | Fallback Region |
|------------|---------------|-----------------|
| North America | {{ primary_region }} | [fallback] |
| Europe | [region] | [fallback] |
| Asia Pacific | [region] | [fallback] |
| Default | {{ primary_region }} | [fallback] |
HEALTH CHECKS:
[ ] Health check endpoint per region
[ ] Health check interval: ___ seconds
[ ] Failure threshold: ___ consecutive failures
[ ] Automatic failover on health check failure
[ ] Failover DNS TTL: ___ seconds
Step 4 — Deployment Pipeline
MULTI-REGION CI/CD
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DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY:
[ ] Sequential: deploy to primary, validate, then secondary regions
[ ] Parallel: deploy to all regions simultaneously
[ ] Canary per region: canary in each region before full rollout
DEPLOYMENT ORDER:
1. [ ] {{ primary_region }} (canary -> full)
2. [ ] [secondary region 1] (canary -> full)
3. [ ] [secondary region 2] (canary -> full)
PER-REGION VALIDATION:
[ ] Health checks passing in region
[ ] Latency within SLO for region
[ ] Data replication healthy
[ ] No cross-region errors
ROLLBACK:
[ ] Per-region rollback capability (independent versions temporarily)
[ ] Global rollback procedure
[ ] Database migration rollback across regions
Step 5 — Failover Configuration
FAILOVER PROCEDURES
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AUTOMATIC FAILOVER:
[ ] Health check-based DNS failover configured
[ ] Failover triggers defined:
- Region unreachable for > ___ seconds
- Error rate > ___% for > ___ minutes
- Latency > ___ms sustained for > ___ minutes
[ ] Automatic database promotion in secondary region
[ ] Automatic traffic rerouting
MANUAL FAILOVER:
[ ] Runbook for manual failover documented
[ ] DNS override procedure
[ ] Database promotion procedure
[ ] Application configuration switch
FAILBACK:
[ ] Data reconciliation procedure after failback
[ ] Traffic gradual shift back to primary
[ ] Verify data consistency across regions
[ ] Reset secondary to standby mode
TESTING:
[ ] Failover tested quarterly
[ ] Last test date: ___
[ ] Next test date: ___
Step 6 — Operational Considerations
OPERATIONS
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MONITORING:
[ ] Per-region dashboards
[ ] Cross-region replication lag monitoring
[ ] Per-region SLO tracking
[ ] Global aggregate metrics
[ ] Region comparison dashboards (spot regional issues)
ON-CALL:
[ ] Follow-the-sun on-call rotation (if applicable)
[ ] Runbooks cover multi-region scenarios
[ ] Incident response includes region isolation as mitigation
COST:
[ ] Per-region cost breakdown
[ ] Data transfer costs between regions estimated: $___/month
[ ] Cross-region replication costs: $___/month
[ ] Total multi-region premium over single-region: ___% / $___/month
COMPLIANCE:
[ ] Data residency requirements met per region
[ ] GDPR: EU data stays in EU region
[ ] Data sovereignty: [other regional requirements]
Step 7 — Readiness Checklist
MULTI-REGION READINESS
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[ ] Infrastructure deployed in all regions
[ ] Data replication configured and healthy
[ ] Traffic routing with failover tested
[ ] Deployment pipeline supports multi-region
[ ] Monitoring covers all regions
[ ] Failover procedure documented and tested
[ ] On-call team trained on multi-region procedures
[ ] Cost model reviewed and approved
[ ] Compliance requirements verified per region
[ ] Load testing completed in each region
Counter-Rationalizations
| Shortcut | Counter | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "We can skip some steps for this case" | Adapt the workflow steps, don't skip them | Skipped steps are where incidents and oversights originate |
| "The user seems to already know what to do" | Complete all workflow phases with the user | The workflow catches blind spots that experience alone misses |
| "This is a minor case, full process is overkill" | Scale the process down, don't turn it off | Minor cases become major when unstructured; the process scales, not disappears |
| "I'll fill in the details later" | Complete each section before moving on | Deferred details are forgotten; real-time capture is more accurate |
| "The template output isn't necessary" | Always produce the structured output format | Structured output enables comparison, audit trails, and handoff to other teams |
Output Format
Produce a multi-region deployment plan with:
- Architecture overview (topology, regions, data flow)
- Data replication strategy with consistency model
- Traffic routing rules and failover configuration
- Deployment pipeline design with per-region validation
- Operational runbooks for failover, failback, and monitoring
- Cost analysis for multi-region premium