With a dedicated server you know where your data is stored (e.g. a data center in Denver, CO, or Dayton, OH) but that isn't the case with EC2 With EC2, you can

With a dedicated server you know where your data is stored (e.g. a data center in Denver, CO, or Dayton, OH) but that isn't the case with EC2 With EC2, you can select a region, and you can be assured that the server you get will be in one of a handful of datacenters in that city. There are 4 availability zones in the US-East region, for example, which means that you can be assured that your data is in northern Virginia.