AWS VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) allows you to create a virtual network for your resources in an isolated section of the AWS cloud. The AWS VPC is similar to a traditional network in your own VPC. You have control over IP address ranges and subnets inside of your VPC. When starting out with AWS, VPC concepts can seem quite complex but by practically building a few and ensuring that you understand the purpose of each component it will start to become quite intuitive.
A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a logically isolated section of the AWS Cloud where we can launch AWS resources in a virtual network that we define. A VPC is a crucial component for creating a secure and scalable infrastructure in AWS. It provides a way to create isolated network segments within the AWS Cloud and to control the flow of traffic between those segments.
Here are the key components of a VPC in AWS:
Subnets: A subnet is a range of IP addresses in our VPC. We can select its IP address range, create security groups, and configure route tables, network gateways, and more. Subnets can be public, private, or a combination of both.
Route Tables: A route table contains a set of rules, called routes, that are used to determine where network traffic is directed. Each subnet in a VPC must be associated with a route table, which controls the traffic routing for the subnet.
Network Access Control Lists (ACLs): Network ACLs are firewalls for our subnets that control inbound and outbound traffic. They operate at the subnet level and provide an additional layer of security to your VPC.
Internet Gateway: An Internet gateway is a horizontally scaled, redundant, and highly available VPC component that allows communication between instances in our VPC and the Internet.
Virtual Private Gateway: A virtual private gateway is a VPC component that allows communication between our VPC and our on-premises data center over an IPsec VPN connection.
Security Groups: Security groups are sets of firewall rules that control inbound and outbound traffic to our instances. Each instance in a VPC must be associated with one or more security groups.
Elastic IP Addresses: An elastic IP address is a static IPv4 address that is assigned to our AWS account. We can associate an elastic IP address with any instance in our VPC, allowing us to mask instance or availability zone failures.
By using these components in a VPC, we can create a flexible and secure network that meets our specific needs.