Cloud networking concepts and design project

Cloud networking models and provider-specific behaviour

A cloud virtual network still uses addresses, subnets, routes and access controls. In AWS, a VPC is a logically isolated virtual network, and a subnet belongs to one Availability Zone. Other cloud platforms use their own names and rules. Do not assume a cloud subnet behaves exactly like a physical Ethernet LAN.

In AWS, a route table controls subnet traffic destinations. A security group is a stateful control associated with supported resources. A network ACL is a separate subnet-level control with different behaviour. An internet route alone is not enough: addressing, security policy and application state also matter.

Cloud network design exercise

1. Choose a VPC range such as 10.20.0.0/16.
2. Draw an application subnet 10.20.1.0/24 and a data subnet 10.20.2.0/24.
3. List exactly which service may talk to which port.
4. Mark which services need inbound access and which only need outbound access.
5. Explain routes, name resolution and logging for each path.

Before deploying on a provider, review its current pricing, regional availability, reserved address rules and cleanup procedure. NAT services, public addresses and other resources may incur charges. This lesson does not create billable resources. Add Linux, identity/access management and infrastructure-as-code skills before moving to a real deployment.