VPC Features

A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a private network interface for collections of DigitalOcean resources. VPC networks are private networks that contain collections of resources that are isolated from the public internet and other VPC networks within your account, project or between teams in the same datacenter region. This means your resources, such as Droplets and databases, can reside in a network that is only accessible to other resources in the same network.

You can use VPC networks to organize and isolate resources in a more secure infrastructure for your applications, execution environments, and tenancies. VPC networks provide control over your networking environment: you can choose your network’s IP range, set up cloud firewalls, configure NAT gateways, connect VPC networks through peering, and connect to external networks through Partner Network Connect.

You can create a variety of new resources in a VPC network, but you can’t migrate all kinds of resources between networks. The following table lists DigitalOcean resources compatible with VPC networks and which ones support migration:

Internet Gateways

Internet gateways route traffic between your VPC resources and the public internet. This enables isolating backend resources while maintaining controlled internet connectivity.

NAT Gateways

DigitalOcean provides a managed Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateway service that centralizes outbound internet access for resources within a VPC network in a datacenter.

NAT Gateways provide:

• Fully managed service maintained by DigitalOcean
• High availability and scalability
• Simple configuration and maintenance
• Enhanced security features

The following diagrams contrast how traffic is routed without and with a NAT Gateway.

Network without Internet Gateway

  flowchart LR
    subgraph Datacenter Region
        subgraph VPC 10.0.220.0/16
            ServerA(<img alt="SSDs icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/SSDs.1b6b4e826c1f734f8051e47497cc8d5894e8593444ec007b158928cc2cd61e21.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   Web Server)
            ServerB(<img alt="SSDs icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/SSDs.1b6b4e826c1f734f8051e47497cc8d5894e8593444ec007b158928cc2cd61e21.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   Web Server)
            ServerC(<img alt="SSDs icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/SSDs.1b6b4e826c1f734f8051e47497cc8d5894e8593444ec007b158928cc2cd61e21.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   Web Server)
        end
    end
    ServerA --> Internet(<img alt="global-data-centers icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/global-data-centers.0ae9dbf9cd223ee5dc3ad44d496d5f74d801c59f6c8a19cf0d3532200a374888.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   Internet)
    ServerB --> Internet
    ServerC --> Internet

Network with NAT Gateway

  flowchart LR
    subgraph Datacenter Region
        subgraph VPC 10.0.220.0/16
            ServerA(<img alt="SSDs icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/SSDs.1b6b4e826c1f734f8051e47497cc8d5894e8593444ec007b158928cc2cd61e21.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   Web Server) --> NATGateway(<img alt="load-balancers icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/load-balancers.1624ac0bbbc110a344dd677a12b6c9c5aa2aa9fa63c2aa61358b03eacf0bcc40.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   NAT Gateway)
            ServerB(<img alt="SSDs icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/SSDs.1b6b4e826c1f734f8051e47497cc8d5894e8593444ec007b158928cc2cd61e21.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   Web Server)  --> NATGateway
            ServerC(<img alt="SSDs icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/SSDs.1b6b4e826c1f734f8051e47497cc8d5894e8593444ec007b158928cc2cd61e21.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   Web Server)  --> NATGateway
        end
    end
    NATGateway --> Internet(<img alt="global-data-centers icon" src="https://docs.digitalocean.com/images/icons/diagram/global-data-centers.0ae9dbf9cd223ee5dc3ad44d496d5f74d801c59f6c8a19cf0d3532200a374888.svg" class="mermaid-icon" />   Internet)

NAT Gateway Features

The following table details the specific features and functionality of NAT Gateways:

To learn how to set up NAT Gateways, see How to Create a NAT Gateway. For implementation guidance and security considerations, see VPC Best Practices.