For an "region" such as the United States, not D2R Items so too much. But if that area was only a tiny portion or part United States, then maybe it could be. The blog post doesn't provide any specifics what it means. )According to the developers.
One of the biggest issues causing all of this is the way Diablo 2 handles core pieces of player behavior. While Vicarious Visions updated the original D2 code in the areas they could, a huge part of the project was keeping the code that worked.
It was all fine up until it no longer started to grow. Diablo 2 has a particular method of pulling data from the central database in order to ensure that players can perform the things they'd like to do. Are you playing a game? That's calling Central Database.
You'd like to switch your characters? That's another check to central command to ensure that you receive the character you demanded, at the same spot you left it with everything you'd worked for.
Diablo 2, according to the team, was designed with the intention of being centralized. The drawback is that only a single instance of the service can be run at any one time, therefore they are unable to transfer some of the weight to regional servers.
"Importantly that this service is a singleton. This means we only have just one instance of it in order to ensure all players are seeing the most current and accurate game list in all times," the devs wrote. "We have improved the performance of this service in many ways in order to better match current technology, but, as we've previously stated many of buy D2R Ladder Items our issues are due to games being created."