Introducing Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) lets you create your own logically isolated set of Amazon EC2 instances and connect it to your existing network using an IPsec VPN connection. This new offering lets you take advantage of the low cost …
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon EC2 had already added static IP addresses and Availability Zones, giving customers more control over placement and addressing inside AWS. VPC extends that control to the network boundary: customers can isolate EC2 resources and link them to an existing network through IPsec.
The launch makes AWS usable alongside, rather than wholly apart from, a customer’s established network environment. Its same-day pickup by All Things Distributed underscores the message that cloud compute can be connected to the data center.
First-order effects
- Organizations with existing networks can place isolated EC2 instances behind an IPsec VPN connection, rather than treating AWS workloads as disconnected public-cloud deployments.
- Amazon gains a network-isolation and connectivity option for EC2 customers whose internal-network requirements had limited where they could run workloads.
Second-order effects
- Customers can divide workloads between their existing networks and EC2 while retaining a private connection between them, making the boundary between internal and AWS-hosted systems operationally less rigid.
- Amazon’s EC2 offer shifts competition from raw compute features toward the practical question of whether a provider can fit into a customer’s established network architecture.
Third-order effects
- If customers adopt the model, cloud infrastructure will increasingly be bought as an extension of enterprise networks rather than as a separate destination for standalone workloads.
- The VPC model points to bridge compute: control over network connections and isolation becomes as important to cloud adoption as virtual-machine capacity.
The trend: Cloud computing is moving toward bridge compute, in which isolated cloud resources connect directly to existing enterprise networks.