What is Virtual Private Cloud

Virtual Private Cloud Definition

A private cloud accommodated in a public cloud environment, is perhaps the best way to define a virtual private cloud. Virtual private cloud is like a cloud within a cloud. It is most commonly used in the context of cloud Infrastructure as a Service. It offers a private network for the enterprises on public cloud. There is a certain level of isolation among the different organizations using the network. The enterprise has more control over its data and applications in this kind of setup.

With a virtual private cloud, data can be transferred securely between a private enterprise and a public cloud provider. Virtual private cloud offers higher level of security as compared to public cloud implementations. Storage of critical data becomes much safer with the security tools provided by virtual private cloud. At the same time, it ensures that each customer's data remains inaccessible to, or rather insulated from every other customer's data inside the cloud provider's network. This entails the use of security policies involving a few elements such as encryption, tunneling, private IP addressing or allocating a virtual communication construct to each customer.

In recent times, myriad sectors including healthcare and finance are utilizing the benefits of private cloud models to store and secure confidential enterprise data. Customization tailored to meet enterprise needs and scalability are two of the greatest advantages of opting for a virtual private cloud model. The major cloud providers which offer virtual private cloud alongside their public clouds are Amazon VPC, Microsoft Managed Private Cloud and Rackspace Managed Private Cloud.

A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is the coherent dissection of a service provider's public cloud multi-tenant architecture to carry private cloud computing in a public cloud environment. In VPC the user gets a variable allotment of resources to configure. Through private IP subnet and virtual communication construct the users are facilitated with a definite point of isolation from other users. Thereby VPC provides a secure method to users to access their cloud resources remotely. As users are basically operating a private cloud within a public cloud, thus the name “virtual private.”  A virtual private server is a distinct physical server, split up between a restricted number of users. It is a parallel hosting set-up to a shared server, where many user accounts are sited on the same server.

Virtual private clouds are not entirely dedicated to a particular organization they just create a more secure environment on public infrastructure.

Factors like Privacy, Security and the Loss of control over proprietary data gave rise to VPC’s. Though customers were interested in leveraging advantages of the reimbursement of cloud computing but they had concerns over certain aspects of the cloud. To assist customers’ requirements, VPC was planned to offer a part of a cloud vendor’s public infrastructure but having dedicated cloud servers. One of the differences between public clouds and VPC’s is that public clouds are Internet reachable whereas Virtual Private Clouds are Intranet reachable. 

Benefits of VPC:   

•    Bandwidth efficiency

•    Application Performance

•    Security

•    Compliance

•    Customization

•    Hybrid Deployments

A  VPC is hugely less expensive and then dedicated server hosting. This is mainly due to the absence of variables for different types of communications over the VPN and the opportunity to communicate securely at low cost in other parts of the world.

Some of the virtual private cloud providers are Google, Amazon, VMware, Rackspace, and CloudBees.