AWS VPC Setup: Complete Networking Guide for Beginners (2025)

A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is the foundation of your AWS infrastructure. Understanding VPC networking is essential for building secure, scalable applications on AWS.

What is a VPC?

A VPC is your own isolated section of the AWS cloud. You have complete control over IP addressing, subnets, routing, and security. Think of it as your private data center in the cloud.

VPC Components

Subnets - Divide your VPC into segments
Route Tables - Control traffic routing
Internet Gateway - Connect to the internet
NAT Gateway - Outbound internet for private subnets
Security Groups - Instance-level firewall
NACLs - Subnet-level firewall

Designing Your VPC

CIDR Block Planning

Choose a CIDR block that doesn't overlap with other networks. Common choices: 10.0.0.0/16 (65,536 IPs), 172.16.0.0/16, or 192.168.0.0/16.

Subnet Strategy

Public subnets: Resources with direct internet access
Private subnets: Databases, application servers
Use at least 2 AZs for high availability

Security Best Practices

Use private subnets for databases and internal services
Minimize security group rules - least privilege
Use VPC Flow Logs for network monitoring
Consider VPC endpoints to avoid NAT Gateway costs
Use separate VPCs for prod/staging/dev

Common Architectures

A typical 3-tier architecture has public subnets for load balancers, private subnets for application servers, and isolated subnets for databases.

Need AWS Networking Help?

CloudElevate designs secure, scalable VPC architectures. From simple setups to multi-account, multi-region networks, we handle the complexity.