# vault1984 — POP Map (AWS + is*hosting)

## Provider Strategy
- **AWS** — core markets where they have regions
- **is*hosting** — everything else (real infrastructure, verified via Looking Glass, Equinix/Tier-3+ DCs)
- Per-record replication for egress efficiency
- Single Go binary + SQLite — no shared state, fully horizontal

---

## The Map (23 confirmed POPs)

### Americas (8)
| City | Provider | DC | Notes |
|------|----------|----|-------|
| Virginia 🇺🇸 | AWS us-east-1 | AWS | US East |
| San Francisco 🇺🇸 | AWS us-west-1 | AWS | US West |
| Montréal 🇨🇦 | is*hosting | eStruxture | Canada |
| Mexico City 🇲🇽 | is*hosting | CloudHQ QRO1 (Querétaro) | LatAm North |
| Bogotá 🇨🇴 | is*hosting | EdgeUno BOG6 (Cota) | LatAm Mid |
| São Paulo 🇧🇷 | AWS sa-east-1 / is*hosting | Equinix SP4 | LatAm largest |
| Santiago 🇨🇱 | is*hosting | EdgeUno SCL2 | LatAm South |
| Buenos Aires 🇦🇷 | is*hosting | EdgeUno EZE1 | LatAm South alt |

### Europe (3)
| City | Provider | DC | Notes |
|------|----------|----|-------|
| London 🇬🇧 | AWS eu-west-2 | AWS | UK + Western Europe |
| Zürich 🇨🇭 | is*hosting | Digitale Suisse AG | Central Europe |
| Madrid 🇪🇸 | is*hosting | Interxion | Southern Europe |

### Middle East & Turkey (2)
| City | Provider | DC | Notes |
|------|----------|----|-------|
| Istanbul 🇹🇷 | is*hosting | Premier DC | Bridge EU/ME |
| Dubai 🇦🇪 | is*hosting | Equinix DX1 | Gulf hub |

### Africa (1)
| City | Provider | DC | Notes |
|------|----------|----|-------|
| Cape Town 🇿🇦 | AWS af-south-1 | AWS | South Africa — only confirmed AWS region in Africa |

### Asia-Pacific (9)
| City | Provider | DC | Notes |
|------|----------|----|-------|
| Mumbai 🇮🇳 | AWS ap-south-1 | AWS | South Asia |
| Singapore 🇸🇬 | is*hosting / AWS | Equinix | SE Asia hub |
| Hong Kong 🇭🇰 | is*hosting | Equinix | China gateway |
| Seoul 🇰🇷 | AWS ap-northeast-2 | AWS | Korea |
| Tokyo 🇯🇵 | is*hosting | Equinix TY8 | Japan |
| Sydney 🇦🇺 | is*hosting | Equinix SY2 | Australia |
| Almaty 🇰🇿 | is*hosting | Sairam | Central Asia — unique, verified |
| Lima 🇵🇪 | is*hosting | GTD Surco | Peru — bonus LatAm coverage |
| ~~Auckland 🇳🇿~~ | ❌ | — | **BLACK SPOT** — no AWS/is*hosting in NZ, nearest node Sydney |

---

## ⚠️ Black Spots

### West Africa
- **Lagos 🇳🇬** — Azure hub only, not a deployable region. **Black spot.**
- **Accra 🇬🇭, Dakar 🇸🇳, Abidjan 🇨🇮** — nothing real available
- All of West Africa = black spot. Starlink + local NUC is the only honest option currently.

### East Africa
- **Nairobi 🇰🇪** — Azure hub only, not a deployable region. **Black spot.**
- **Dar es Salaam 🇹🇿, Kampala 🇺🇬, Addis Ababa 🇪🇹** — not in is*hosting, no AWS
- All of East Africa = black spot. Same situation as West Africa.

### Turkey–Egypt region
- **Istanbul ✅** — is*hosting, Premier DC
- **Cairo 🇪🇬** — NOT in is*hosting's 41 locations. AWS has no Egypt region yet. Azure expanding but not GA.
- Cairo = **black spot**. Closest real nodes are Istanbul (~1800km) or Dubai (~2500km).

### New Zealand 🇳🇿
- **Auckland** — not in is*hosting. AWS has no NZ region. Azure has no NZ region.
- Nearest real node: Sydney (~2100km).
- Auckland = **black spot**. Would need a local provider (Spark NZ, Vodafone NZ colocation) or Starlink.

### Russia 🇷🇺
- **Moscow** — is*hosting has no Russia node (sanctions exposure, payment issues)
- AWS, Azure, GCP all withdrew from Russia in 2022
- Russia = **black spot by design** — no safe, commercially viable option exists
- Kyiv is in is*hosting but that's Ukraine, not a Russia workaround

### China 🇨🇳
- **Hong Kong ✅** — as close as you get without operating inside China
- **Mainland China** — requires ICP license from MIIT, mandatory backdoor access, legally incompatible with vault1984's operator-blind model
- China mainland = **black spot by architecture** — cannot be done legally without compromising the product

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## Summary

| Region | POPs | Black spots |
|--------|------|-------------|
| Americas | 8 | None |
| Europe | 3 | None |
| Middle East/Turkey | 2 | Cairo |
| Africa | 1 | All of West Africa, all of East Africa, Cairo |
| Asia-Pacific | 9 | Auckland, Russia, China mainland |
| **Total** | **25** | |

---

## Notes
- Lima added from is*hosting (was previously missing from LatAm)
- Atal Networks removed — SEO-only, no real exotic infrastructure
- Russia and China mainland are architectural black spots, not operational failures
- Auckland and Cairo are genuine gaps — local provider research needed
