Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
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| Original author(s) | Amazon.com, Inc. |
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| Developer(s) | Amazon.com |
| Initial release | September 25, 2009 |
| Development status | Active |
| Operating system | |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Virtual Private Server |
| License | Proprietary software |
| Website | aws |
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a commercial cloud computing service that provides users a virtual private cloud, by "provision[ing] a logically isolated section of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud".Enterprise customers are able to access the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) over an IPsec based virtual private network. Unlike traditional EC2 instances which are allocated internal and external IP numbers by Amazon, the customer can assign IP numbers of their choosing from one or more subnets. By giving the user the option of selecting which AWS resources are public facing and which are not, VPC provides much more granular control over security. For Amazon it is "an endorsement of the hybrid approach, but it's also meant to combat the growing interest in private clouds".
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud aims to provide a service similar to private clouds using technology such as OpenStack or HPE Helion Eucalyptus. However, typically a private cloud would install systems such as OpenShift application hosting or a database and Hadoop systems. Cloud security experts warned there can be compliance risks, such as a loss of control or service cancellation in using public resources which do not exist with in house systems. If transaction records are requested from Amazon about a VPC using a National security letter they may not even be legally allowed to inform the customer of the breach of the security of their system. This would be true even if the actual VPC resources were in another country. The API used by AWS only partly compatible with that of HPE Helion Eucalyptus and is not compatible with other private cloud systems so migration from AWS may be difficult. This has led to warnings of the possibility of lock-in to a specific technology.
Initially, users are able to choose a range of IP addresses for their VPC. Within this range, users can assign various private and public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to instances in the VPC in order to communicate with the Internet and other instances of VPCs. These addresses are assigned to specific instances rather than the user's entire VPC account. Assignment of Public IP addresses is not possible, instead the address is assigned and unassigned in certain cases, causing the address of an instance to change. When a consistent IP address is needed, a third type of IP Address, Elastic IP addresses, can be used in place of Public IP addresses.
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