What is Google Cloud VPN, and how does it work?
Google Cloud VPN is a service you can use to connect to your virtual private cloud (VPC) network from your local network through an Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) virtual private network (VPN) connection. It’s often used to allow on-site networks to leverage the power of resources on VPCs, and vice versa.
This is a lot of information to digest, but in this guide we’ll break down what it all means. By the end of the article, you’ll have a high-level understanding of what Google Cloud VPN does, and how it might be useful for your organization.
What is a private cloud?
First, let’s define what a private cloud (opens in new tab) is. Companies that rent resources like data storage servers and virtual machines are using cloud models. There are two types of cloud: private cloud and public cloud (opens in new tab). A private cloud is a set of cloud-hosted resources dedicated exclusively to a single customer, whereas public clouds may see customers sharing computing resources such as network bandwidth and processing power.
Private clouds are typically more secure than public clouds. And because resources are not shared with other customers, private cloud performance is more stable and reliable.
However, private clouds are relatively expensive, because they require an investment in hardware and software. They also need someone to manage and maintain the hardware and software, too, and it’s not easy to scale a private cloud up or down when you need to.
What is a virtual private cloud?
A virtual private cloud is a private cloud contained within a public cloud. The cloud provider sells logically isolated parts of its public cloud to many customers.
Importantly, processing and data storage systems aren’t shared between customers in a virtual private cloud. You get your own unique, private cloud resources, and your data is always kept separate from other virtual private clouds. This means a virtual private cloud should be just as secure as a traditional private cloud, but is much less expensive to rent.
How are virtual private clouds managed?
From a network technician’s point of view, virtual private clouds work roughly like traditional offline physical networks, but everything is…