Designing Highly Available Multi-Region Architectures on AWS
Designed for Senior cloud architects and DevOps leads tasked with designing resilient, multi-region AWS solutions for mission-critical enterprise apps to spark real collaboration and high-energy learning.
A 90-minute virtual workshop for experienced architects and DevOps leads who are pressured by business continuity demands, but uncertain about real-world failure modes, cross-region latency, and cost trade-offs. The session is highly interactive, with live diagramming and scenario-based troubleshooting, addressing the pressing need to move beyond single-region architectures.
AWS Outage Map Mystery
Kick off with a real-time, anonymized AWS outage map (from Downdetector or AWS Health Dashboard) and ask participants to speculate which architecture patterns failed and which survived. Each group gets a short description of an AWS incident and must guess the setup behind it. Payoff: Instant curiosity about what really happens when regions fail.
Tap to view the full activity.
Why this works
Leveraging mystery and real-world unpredictability activates curiosity, primes participants to question assumptions, and frames the session with authentic stakes.
Region Redundancy Mythbusters
Present three common misconceptions about multi-region AWS design (e.g., 'Route53 auto-failover means zero downtime,' 'Multi-AZ equals multi-region resilience,' 'S3 replication always covers DR needs'). Participants vote 'true or false,' then discuss why. Payoff: Instantly surfaces gaps and clears confusion.
Tap to view the full activity.
Why this works
Directly confronting misconceptions encourages critical thinking, reduces overconfidence, and allows facilitators to set the record straight early.
Quickfire Service Sorting
Hand out virtual cards listing AWS services (like RDS, DynamoDB Global Tables, Aurora, S3, Lambda). Ask participants to sort them into 'multi-region-ready' and 'single-region-only' stacks using an online board or physical cards. No pressure: everyone can move a card or skip. Payoff: Rapid tactile engagement, removes ambiguity.
Tap to view the full activity.
Why this works
Low-pressure sorting allows all learning types to participate without fear of being wrong, engages kinesthetic learning, and provides instant clarity on multi-region capabilities.
Architecture Battle Royale
Split into teams and present a fast-paced challenge: Each team gets a scenario (e.g., 'Global eCommerce site with strict RTO/RPO'), then has 5 minutes to sketch a whiteboard diagram of their multi-region AWS solution. Teams pitch their design in 60 seconds; audience votes on resilience, cost, and simplicity. Payoff: High-energy creativity and competitive cross-pollination.
Tap to view the full activity.
Why this works
Competition boosts motivation, energizes the room, and encourages participants to synthesize and defend their ideas under time pressure.
The CEO’s Midnight Call
Tell a vivid story: 'It’s 2am. The CEO calls—your flagship app is down in US-East-1. Global users are furious. What will you check first? How will your architecture respond?' Pause and let participants debate their immediate action steps and the dilemma of balancing speed, cost, and coverage. Payoff: Forces real-world prioritization and empathy for business impact.
Tap to view the full activity.
Why this works
Placing participants in a vivid, high-stakes dilemma drives emotional engagement, contextualizes technical decisions, and makes abstract concepts concrete.
Personal Resilience Scorecard
Have participants privately score their own team’s AWS architecture on a 'Resilience Scorecard': questions include 'Does your design support automated failover across regions?' 'Are RTO/RPO defined and tested?' 'Have you run simulated region failover drills?' They then reflect: What’s their biggest gap? What’s one action they’ll take next week? Payoff: Personal connection and actionable follow-through.
Tap to view the full activity.
Why this works
Prompting individual reflection and self-assessment links learning to personal ownership and drives transfer of skills to real-world practice.
Sign up to unlock 3 more activities
Get the full pack, facilitation flow, and more ready-to-run ideas.