Dissecting AWS’s Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

You can launch AWS resources into a specified virtual network using Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). With the advantages of utilizing the scalable infrastructure of AWS, this virtual network closely mimics a conventional network you would manage in your own data center.

Features of the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

There are various features of the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud as described −

Virtual Private Cloud

An internal private cloud computing environment of a public cloud is called a virtual private cloud (VPC). A VPC creates logically segregated areas of a public cloud to offer a virtual private environment. Similar to a public cloud, a VPC utilizes a shared infrastructure. A VPC, however, enables a certain amount of separation between the cloud users who are sharing resources. A private IP subnet or a virtual local area network creates this layer of isolation (VLAN). Companies that require a private cloud environment but also desire public cloud resources and cost reductions are the ones that profit most from VPCs.

Subnets

A subnetwork or subnet is a network that is contained within another network. Subnets improve the efficiency of networks. Thanks to subnetting, network communication may travel a shorter distance without superfluous routers. In your VPC, a subnet is a group of IP addresses. Only one Availability Zone can include a subnet. After creating subnets, you may deploy AWS resources in your VPC.

Internet Protocol Address

To understand subnets, we must establish IP addresses right away. Each of billions of devices connected to the Internet has a unique IP (Internet Protocol) address, which enables data sent over the network to identify the right device. Even though computers understand IP addresses as binary information, they are commonly expressed as a string of alphanumeric characters (a series of 1s and 0s).

Routing

The choice of a path across one or more networks is known as network routing. Any network, including telephone networks and public transportation, may use routing in general. Routing determines the routes Internet Protocol (IP) packets take to go from one place to another in packet-switching networks like the Internet. Routers are specialized pieces of network equipment that make these Internet routing decisions.

Gateway endpoints

You may connect your VPC to your AWS services via a VPC Endpoint without needing an Internet Gateway, NAT device, VPN, or an AWS Direct Connect connection. For communication with AWS services, instances in your VPC don't need public IP addresses; instead, they utilize VPC Endpoint.

Traffic Mirroring

You can copy network traffic from an elastic network interface of type interface using the Amazon VPC functionality known as traffic mirroring. The traffic can then be sent to appliances for out-of-band security and monitoring for content review, threat monitoring, and troubleshooting. The network load balancers with a UDP listener on either the Network Load Balancer, the Gateway Load Balancer, or a fleet of network load balancing instances may be used to install the security and monitoring appliances. So that you may only extract the traffic that interests you to monitor using the monitoring tools of your choice, Traffic Mirroring offers filters and packet truncation.

Transit Gateways

You may link your virtual private clouds (VPCs) and on-premises networks via a transit gateway, which is a network transit hub. Inter-Region peering links transit gateways utilizing the AWS Global Architecture as your cloud infrastructure grows internationally. Your information is always encrypted and never sent over a public network.

AWS VPN

Between your VPC and your external network, you may set up an IPsec VPN connection. A virtual private or transit gateway on the AWS side of the Site-to-Site VPN connection offers two VPN endpoints (tunnels) for automated failover. You set up your client gateway device on the distant end of the Site-to-Site VPN connection.

Working with Amazon VPC

You may use any of the below APIs to construct and manage your VPCs −

AWS Management Console − An online application called the AWS Management Console includes and refers to many service consoles for controlling AWS services.

AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) − A centralized tool for managing your AWS services is the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI).

AWS SDKs − It offers language-specific APIs and handles numerous connection-related aspects, like computing signatures, managing request retries, and resolving errors.

Query API − offers basic API operations that you may call using HTTPS requests. The simplest direct approach to contacting Amazon VPC is using the Query API, but doing so necessitates your application handling low-level aspects like creating the hash to sign the request and error handling.

Conclusion

You have a complete control over your virtual networking environment, including resource allocation, connection, and security, using Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). To get going, configure your VPC in the AWS service panel. Add resources later, including Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) instances and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances. Decide how your VPCs will interact with one another, whether they are located in different accounts, Availability Zones, or AWS Regions. You can launch AWS resources into a specified virtual network using Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC).