# Amazon VPC

> Your own private slice of the AWS network, with walls you draw yourself.

- Level: Intermediate
- Topics: AWS, Networks
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-vpc/
- In Spanish: [Amazon VPC](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/amazon-vpc/)

**Amazon VPC** (Virtual Private Cloud) is the service that gives you an isolated network inside AWS. Everything you launch, an Amazon EC2 server, an Amazon RDS database, a container, lives inside a VPC, with its own range of private IP addresses that nobody else on AWS can reach.

Inside the VPC you cut **subnets**: smaller blocks of addresses, each tied to one Availability Zone. A public subnet has a route to the internet; a private one does not. **Security groups** act as a firewall around each machine, saying which ports can be reached and from where. Route tables decide where traffic goes next.

A typical setup: a load balancer in a public subnet, application servers in a private subnet, and the database in another private subnet that only those servers can talk to. Even if someone learns the database's address, there is no path to it from outside.

Every AWS account comes with a default VPC so you can start without thinking about networking, but production systems almost always design their own.

## An analogy

An empty office building you rent. You decide which floors have a street entrance, which are staff-only, and which doors need a key card.

## Keep in mind

- A VPC lives in one region and spans its Availability Zones.
- Public subnets can reach the internet; private ones cannot unless you add a NAT gateway.
- Security groups are per-machine firewalls: closed by default, you open only what you need.
- The default VPC is fine for experiments, not for production.

## Go deeper

- [What is Amazon VPC? (official docs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/what-is-amazon-vpc.html)
- [Amazon VPC product page](https://aws.amazon.com/vpc/)

## Related terms

- [Amazon EC2](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-ec2/): Virtual computers you rent by the hour, in any size, and switch off when done.
- [Server](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/server/): A computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, all day, every day.
- [Amazon RDS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-rds/): A ready-made relational database that AWS keeps patched, backed up and running.
- [Database](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/database/): An organized store of data that programs can search and update safely.
- [Container](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/container/): A sealed box with a program and everything it needs to run anywhere.
- [IP address](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ip-address/): The number that identifies a device on a network, like a postal address.
- [Subnet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/subnet/): A slice of a network's IP addresses, grouped so its devices can talk directly.
- [Regions and Availability Zones](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/regions-and-availability-zones/): Where AWS physically lives: cities worldwide, each split into separate data centers.