A Private Slice of the Cloud
A virtual private cloud is a logically isolated network that you carve out inside a provider's shared infrastructure. Even though the physical hardware is shared with other tenants, your VPC behaves like a private data center network that only you control.
What You Define
When you create a VPC you choose its address space and how it is divided.
- A CIDR block sets the private IP range, often something like ten dot zero dot zero dot zero slash sixteen.
- The range should be private so it does not clash with the public internet.
- The VPC spans one region and can stretch across availability zones inside it.
Why Isolation Matters
Traffic inside one VPC cannot reach another VPC unless you explicitly connect them. This isolation is the foundation for security, because nothing leaks between tenants by default.
Key idea
A virtual private cloud is your own isolated, software defined network inside shared cloud hardware, defined by a private address range and isolated from other tenants by default.