Actual measured latency performance of Alibaba Cloud’s 24 Hong Kong VPS and Singapore IPs in user experiences across multiple regions

Introduction: This article focuses on “measuring the latency performance of Alibaba Cloud’s 24 Hong Kong VPS and Singapore IPs in user experiences across various regions.” It explains the purpose and environment of the tests, the tools used, the latency characteristics in different regions and their influencing factors, and provides actionable optimization suggestions. The goal is to provide a reference for operations, product, and site teams in deciding on deployment locations. Based on comprehensive observations from multiple ping, traceroute, and HTTP response tests, this article strives to be neutral and practical.

This test was conducted to evaluate the differences in network latency and stability for VPS instances in Alibaba Cloud’s Hong Kong data center (with Singapore IP addresses) when serving users from different geographical locations. The testing environment includes standard VPS instances, default routing, and system configurations that are not specially optimized. The sampling times cover weekdays and off-peak hours. Test nodes are located in Hong Kong, Singapore, multiple cities in mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, as well as representative nodes in Europe and the United States, to ensure coverage of typical user sources.

The testing tools include ping, mtr/traceroute, curl, and HTTP load testing tools. The key metrics include average round-trip time (RTT), packet loss rate, number of hops, and TCP handshake time. To reduce randomness, multiple samples are taken for each node, and the median and 90th percentile delays are calculated, with a focus on the time to first byte (TTFB) and stability, in order to evaluate the actual user experience.

For local users in Hong Kong and Singapore, actual testing shows the best latency performance: Round-trip latency is generally in the low millisecond range with very few packet losses. Due to geographical proximity and direct undersea cable connections, when accessing Alibaba Cloud’s Hong Kong data center and using Singaporean IPs for forwarding, users typically experience low page response and interaction delays, making it suitable for real-time applications or website services targeting both Hong Kong and Singapore.

There are significant differences in access latency across different cities in mainland China: The Pearl River Delta and some eastern coastal cities have relatively lower delays, while inland or western cities have relatively higher delays, with slight fluctuations possible at cross-border links. The main sources of latency differences are the quality of operator interconnections and cross-border bandwidth strategies; therefore, the experience of users on the mainland is significantly affected by the operator routes and exit nodes.

Delays from nearby countries such as Japan and South Korea to Hong Kong’s data centers are usually within an acceptable range, but there is a slight increase compared to Hong Kong/Singapore ； Delays at more distant nodes such as Australia and India have increased significantly, and jitter on cross-border links is more pronounced. Users in Europe and the Americas experience high latency, making it suitable for non-real-time or cache-driven use cases. Improving the experience requires the use of CDN or edge acceleration strategies.

Delay is influenced by multiple factors: Physical distance, submarine cable layout, operator interconnection strategies, routing selection, cross-border export congestion, and the network bandwidth/queue settings of the VPS itself. Even within the same data center, latency can vary at different times. Therefore, when evaluating “the actual latency performance of Alibaba Cloud’s 24/7 Hong Kong VPS and Singapore IPs in user experiences across various regions,” these dynamic factors as well as long-term trends should be taken into account.

It is recommended to adopt a hierarchical strategy based on the distribution of target users: New users in Hong Kong can directly use a Hong Kong VPS while retaining a Singapore IP address ； For mainland and remote users, domestic edge nodes or global CDNs can be combined to optimize TCP/TLS configurations and use multi-path monitoring for automatic route switching. Furthermore, continuously monitoring latency and packet loss, as well as regularly evaluating the routing quality between operators, helps to adjust deployment strategies in a timely manner.

Summary: Regarding “the actual measured latency performance of Alibaba Cloud’s 24 Hong Kong VPS and Singapore IPs in user experiences across various regions,” the overall conclusion is: Hong Kong and Singapore offer excellent local performance. Performance in mainland China and neighboring Asia-Pacific regions is significantly affected by routing and service providers, with higher latency in remote areas. Deployment should be guided by the user’s region, combined with CDN and link monitoring to achieve an ultimate solution that balances performance and stability.