Serverless Developer Guide
deploy from these templates to the cloud. AWS SAM CLI also provides features to test and debug 
locally and deploy changes to infrastructure and code.
Tip
There are other tools that our customers use, such as the AWS Cloud Development Kit 
(AWS CDK) for programmatic creation of infrastructure and code, or several 3rd party IaC 
options.
You will ﬁnd that some services provide emulators that can run on your local laptop. These tools 
can be useful for local development, but they are also limited in terms of service and API coverage. 
Serverless services are better suited to their native cloud environment.
Related resources:
• Install AWS CLI - to control and manage your AWS services from the command line
• Install AWS SAM CLI - to create, deploy, test, and update your serverless code and resources from 
the command line
• Note: These tools are provided by AWS Cloud9, but you should update to the latest available 
versions.
AWS cloud infrastructure
AWS provides services across the globe. You only need to understand how regions, availability 
zones, and data centers are related so that you can select a region. You will see the region code in 
URLs and Amazon Resource Names (ARNs), unique identiﬁers for AWS resources.
Regions
Every solution you build that runs in the AWS cloud will be deployed to at least one region.
• Region – a physical location around the world where we cluster data centers
• Availability Zone or "AZ" - one or more discrete data centers with redundant power, networking, 
and connectivity within a Region
• Data center – a physical location that contains servers, data storage drives, and network 
equipment
AWS cloud infrastructure 13