Introducing: Private Networking With VPC

As applications start to scale, many people struggle to rely on public networking even for internal service communication, because while powerful, public networking does come with its own set of drawbacks like an increased attack surface, additional latency and unmanageable infrastructure with different IP addresses.

We at VPSBG are proud to announce the introduction of VPC - the private networking feature, designed to solve these problems.

With a VPC, you can easily move your infrastructure into a logically isolated network where different services can communicate in a private channel instead of having to do so over the public Internet, reducing exposure, improving performance and giving you greater control over your system connectivity.

This makes the feature perfect for managing production workloads, handling sensitive information and building application architectures with the help of our reliable and privacy-first cloud hosting environment.

What is a VPC?

A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), as we already mentioned, is a logically isolated network where resources run in a private environment, without access to the public Internet. To do this, services inside a VPC use private IPs to talk to each other instead of having to utilize publicly accessible IPs.

This makes it so that your infrastructure essentially operates inside of its very own, personal dedicated network space, enabling you to have full control over how everything is connected, what is accessible and what traffic can flow in between your resources. A good example for a VPC is to treat it as your very own private data center…only without the physical complexities.

But why start thinking about using a VPC? With the increasing growth for privacy, cloud infrastructure and project scalability, this isolation becomes a fundamental building block, essential for running reliable systems.

How does a VPC work?

A VPC gives you the option to have a fully private network environment where resources can communicate securely without accessing the public Internet. Fantastic. But how does it work in practice?

When you go ahead and create a VPC, you define a private IP range that essentially acts as the address space for your entire network. Then, every resource that you launch inside of that particular VPC (database, internal service, virtual machine or anything else) gets assigned an IP address from that range. These resources can then easily communicate directly with each other over the private network, without traffic having to ever leave, meaning that nothing goes out to the public space. Consequently, this results in fewer external dependencies, practically zero latency and a significantly reduced attack surface.

Additionally, you also define all rules that traffic needs to follow within your network, allowing you to restrict communication, data flow, public access and everything else.

When should you use a VPC?

Not every setup needs a VPC right away, however, with privacy and security becoming an expensive commodity, it’s a good idea to start implementing it early. Here’s a general rule of thumb when to start using a VPC:

• You are usually running production workloads
• You are required to protect sensitive data (databases, internal APIs, background services)
• You are building a multi-service architecture (microservices, worker systems and internal tools need better communication)
• You are required to separate environments (development, staging and production)
• You care about long-term scalability

The earlier you start using a VPC, the easier project management becomes later.

VPC vs Other Alternatives

Some might say that a VPC sounds a lot like a VPN or other solutions. While they might have some common principles, they do differ in their approach and general work model. The following table compares VPC to other alternatives.

Best security practices with a VPC

Setting up VPC is only part of the process if you wish to truly keep your data secure and environments isolated. Here are some of the best security practices that you should also consider implementing when using a VPC.

Keep internal services private

You should only expose services that genuinely need public access like a frontend or API gateway. Internal APIs, databases and workers should always remain within the private network.

Utilize network boundaries

Make sure to separate your infrastructure into logical layers like public, application and data. This will make it easier to set boundaries when it comes to traffic and reduces any risk of exposure.

Limit communication between services

Internal access is great, but overly open access - not so much. Make sure to define which services need to communicate and restrict everything else.

Utilize controlled entry points

Another useful tip is to route external traffic through a smaller number of entry points, making security centralized and monitoring easier.

Keep environments isolation

Make sure to keep your different environments isolated - development, staging and production should be in separate VPCs.

Overall, relying on public networking for internal workloads does work, but it comes with security and privacy risks. VPCs solve this problem, offering a private, isolated network where resources can communicate freely, while keeping you in full control over everything. Service communication is just as important as the services themselves, so it’s better to implement VPCs at an earlier stage, as that will not only simplify your workflow later, but will also give you a much more secure and privacy-friendly environment.