As described in Chapter 3, Understanding the Microsoft Azure Architecture, Microsoft Azure is located in many regions spread out over the world.
You might be wondering what the best region is to create virtual machines and services in. There are many reasons to decide for a particular region like:
Compliance: Some countries and organizations (like governments) put restrictions on the storage of data. They do not allow data to cross the national border or the border of, for instance, the European Union. This, in turn, restricts the choice of the datacenter.
Performance: To have the best performance, it is best to be located as close as possible to the datacenter.
Note that the Western European region is housed in datacenters located in or near Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Dublin, which is further west than Amsterdam, houses the North Europe region. This can be a bit confusing.
There is a very useful website called Microsoft Azure Speed Test...