What are Edge Locations in AWS?

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Edge Locations are data centers AWS operates at the network edge — closer to end users than Regions — to cache content and accelerate global traffic. Purpose — serve cached responses for CloudFront , terminate TLS, run Lambda@Edge / CloudFront Functions, and accept ingress for Global Accelerator and Route 53 . Scale — 600+ Points of Presence (PoPs) across 100+ cities and 90+ countries in 2026. Different from Regions — Edge Locations don't run general-purpose EC2; they're optimized for low-latency content delivery and edge compute. Regional Edge Caches — a tier between Edge Locations and the origin, with larger storage for long-tail content. Why it matters: Edge Locations cut latency from hundreds of milliseconds (origin) to single-digit (edge) for cacheable content. Edge Locations are not Regions — they only host CDN and edge compute. Mention CloudFront Functions (L1, sub-ms) vs Lambda@Edge (heavier, Node/Python) to show you know both edge runtimes.