Presented as a more affordable alternative to private clouds and more secure than public clouds, Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) can be rapidly integrated into an existing corporate network. They are particularly well suited to organizations and businesses handling sensitive data, such as banking, healthcare, human resources and so on.
The cloud computing ecosystem is constantly pushing back its boundaries. Just as some video games offer huge "open worlds", the cloud landscape is extraordinarily diverse. And there's something for everyone.
In fact, we've been avoiding the term "cloud" for years now. In fact, there are as many clouds and innovative solutions offered by providers as there are use cases. Take cloud models, for example.
Public and private clouds: the right choice
The best-known is the public cloud, where the IT infrastructure is shared by several customers. At the other end of the spectrum is the private cloud (in-house or off-site), with an IT infrastructure dedicated to a single customer. Between the two, there's the hybrid cloud: the two clouds - private and public - coexist, with tasks shared.
It's not easy to make the right choice. However, a Forrester Research study published in 2017 indicates that the majority of organizations that tried to create their own private cloud were disappointed: the high cost of moving from public to private cloud was hardly justified.
Generally speaking, these three models have their advantages and disadvantages. But what if the best of all cloud worlds was represented by a fourth model? Less well known, yet highly attractive, is the VPC (Virtual Private Cloud). This is a hybrid device: a private cloud is hosted inside a public cloud.
Businesses are increasingly interested in having their cake and eating it too: they benefit from an affordable global public infrastructure, while retaining some of the features they enjoyed about having their own infrastructure.
Like all solutions, VPC has its strengths, but also its limitations.
The advantages of mail order
In absolute terms, a VPC can look and act like an extension of your on-premises data center. While it's not a "true" private cloud, it's close enough for many organizations.
The second argument in its favor is data confidentiality, thanks to the watertightness offered by this virtual cloud. Your data processing and storage methods are not mixed with those of other public cloud tenants. This compartmentalization represents a significant guarantee of security.
By opting for a VPC, a company obtains a distinctive private IP subnet, which it can operate as if the components and software program were in-house. It has total control over the range of IP addresses used by its VPC, over the creation and management of subnets, which can be either public (accessible via the Internet) or private (accessible via a VPN), and over the configuration of routing tables and gateways.
In all cases, a Virtual Private Cloud remains behind the company's firewall.
Virtual Private Clouds are relatively inexpensive. Compared with dedicated servers of the same class, they offer much greater raw power, even though they are virtual.
A VPS server can be created much more quickly than a dedicated server, which has to be assembled and installed. This means your virtual dedicated server can be up and running in a matter of hours, with all the necessary software installed on site.
Finally, a single VPC can cover several regions without communicating over the public Internet. All teams within a company can use this VPC to isolate their workloads into projects, and benefit from separate billing and quotas.
The limits
You need to take into account the cost of inputting and outputting data via the VPC, as well as the cost of a private connection per hour. Another pitfall is latency. This can be a problem for teams using a VPC on the open Internet over a private connection.
These few drawbacks don't seem to be deterring businesses. According to a recent study by Markets and Markets, the global virtual private cloud market is expected to grow from USD 29.9 billion in 2019 to USD 58.9 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.0% over the forecast period.
According to this analyst firm, "security, the development of automation and the need to modernize IT are the main factors driving growth in this type of offering. However, compatibility problems with existing systems may hold back market growth".
