How to Secure Your AWS Virtual Private Cloud?
The famous company, Amazon, has always come up with innovative solutions for most tech-related problems. The company keeps on innovating new ways to bring the world close and improve the flexibility of the online world.
One of such innovations that this company offered to the world is AWS VPC or the Amazon Website services Virtual Private Cloud. It’s a valuable resource which allowed the cloud services users to access and transfer their data in a highly secure and efficient way.
The new technology created an isolated work environment which was more flexible from any existing services and was rather risk-free.
This post will guide you with the various aspects of this new technology and also tell you about the various benefits that it can serve for your cloud-based business or AWS.
What is AWS Virtual Private Cloud?
Amazon Virtual Private cloud is a gateway to access and manage the resource of Amazon web services or AWS. It facilitates you in creating a virtual working environment and isolates the section of AWS cloud. The primary purpose of this network is to make sure that the user gets full control over IP address range, subnets, configuration, and other aspects of the AWS cloud network.
You can use it to create a public subnet for web servers and hide the backend database or system. It’s beneficial in securing your resources and preventing unauthorized access of data.
In simple words, Amazon VPC is a software program that lets the administrator of Amazon cloud computing services in regulating user rights, lock away the critical data, and monitor the data flow.
Benefits of AWS Virtual Private Cloud
According to, Akram Artoul, CEO of the WebEagle, reveals that every year, more than 3 million reports get lost stolen during online activities. More than 600 breaches happen in a single quarter.
He also added that most of these issues arise because the cloud users have a week cloud security or his/her database is easily accessible.
So, if you value the data in your cloud and want its safety, Amazon Virtual Private cloud is a must. It can help you to keep a check on the files, detach the critical databases from the main network, and implement many more measures for secure cloud services.
It can provide advanced security with security groups and also with network access control lists for filtering the traffic.
Creating a VPC
Amazon VPC service is created for simplicity and reliability. You will have to simply select the network setup that meets your requirements and start the wizard. All other features- subnet, route tables, security groups, and IP range will get created automatically.
However, you may need to consider some important points and follow some practices before getting down with the works. Have a look:
1. Design a complete Strategy before Creating AWS Virtual Private Cloud
Whenever you start fresh, always begin with a detailed plan like how are you going to design your VPC and how it will work? All the planning is necessary to identify the purpose of VPC creation.
You need to consider certain factors like whether you are creating VPC:
· to host a public facing website
· for extending an on-premises network
· to provide access to what type of services, applications, and users
· for what kind of connectivity between VPC and the other networks
Also, decide whether you want to create only single VPC or need multiple for providing proper connectivity and security.
A clear vision of your objective will help to create a more secure virtual private cloud.
2. Create new VPC
AWS creates a default VPC for every signup, but it is best if you avoid using this VPC. It’s because the subnets of this VPC connect with the main routing table so, its security configuration opens in default VPC. Hence, it will not keep a check on incoming and outgoing traffic.
However, the subnets that you create will not be associated with the main routing table here. You will define the custom route tables for each newly created VPC, so there will be no security risks. It is also beneficial; if something goes wrong on one VPC, it will not affect the other.
So, follow the following steps and create a subnet as soon as you start Amazon Virtual Private Cloud.
· Open Amazon VPC console
· Select ADS subnet 1 under the Subnet drop in the navigation panel
· Open the summary of the subset and scroll to the bottom of the page for available zones
· Click on “Create Subnet” and enter information
· Fill the ‘ADS Subnet 2’ in the name tag, select the VPC, configure an available zone, and then click “Yes, Create.”
3. Multiple AWS Virtual Private Cloud
As per your requirement, you can create multiple VPC’s. It’s up to you whether you want single VPC to handle production and development or want different. Creating more than one is beneficial because it is recommended to keep the two platforms- testing and development different. The move is again to ensure that if something goes out of place on one VPC, it will not affect the other.
Maintaining different platforms makes the virtual private cloud network tougher from a security point of view.
4. Use Security Groups
Security groups are like firewalls that scan the incoming and outgoing traffic that is passing through VPC. The new VPC that you create will have restrictions on the inbound traffic, but the outbound traffic will be free. Here you need to configure by setting specific rules for allowing incoming traffic and ensuring security.
Contrary to security groups, if you use NACL- Network Access Control Lists, that is also a type of firewall, it controls both inbound and outbound traffic. When you create a new NACL, it restricts the flow of both types of traffics, whether it’s incoming traffic or outgoing traffic. So, it will make the network more secure and manageable for you.
Further, NACL also allows you to restrict the access rights of the security groups by implementing rules on them. These rules will work as a guideline for the system, and you can modify them any time according to your need.
5. Elastic IP Address
Using an elastic IP address is an essential way of boosting AWC Virtual Private cloud. Here when the resources that host in your VPC calls for internet connectivity, you have the privilege to provide them the connectivity of your choice. You can allocate them elastic IP address or public IP address to any network interface or instance.
The only problem is that if you launch an instance in the subnet and it fails due to some reason, your associated public IP address also gets lost. However, elastic IP can help you to avoid this problem. If you are using an elastic IP during the failure, the system can move to the next instance without any data loss.
The Final Words
Amazon virtual private Cloud is the next step towards a secure and reliable cloud computing experience. It can help you to eliminate all the risk of data theft, loss, and simplify cloud management tasks. So, follow these practices for and ensure full security to applications, data, and hosted servers on AWS virtual private cloud. You can also consult the experts at WebEagle as they send you an alert, if they find that your network is prone to a cyberattack.
