What is a Private Network?
A private network is secured and isolated from the public internet, allowing only authorised devices and apps to connect and exchange data with one another. Private networks are often used by business to create local area networks, which offer secure access to network resources within a defined geographic location.
Defining a private network
While offering huge advantages for enterprise, the public internet is not actually optimised for business use, especially when dealing with sensitive data or comms. Whenever you’re, say, communicating on the internet, you’re also opening yourself up to exposure to threat from bad actors because your business data is not secure.
This lack of security is the key reason why savvy business adopts private networking. As private networks are isolated from the public internet, there is no chance of a hacker ‘eavesdropping’ on the business, plus only a device or app that has gone through a strict authentication process can access and connect to the private network. Adopting such an approach is vital to any business that wishes to adopt a zero trust ethos to its data and device security.
Beyond security
Other private network benefits compared to the public internet include:
- Excellent configurability such as prioritising bandwidth for faster performance. In fact, in many use cases, the performance and data transfer speeds offered by private networking are improved. This is because data does not pass through a public network as well as ensuring it remains secure.
- The deployment of private networks/local area networks enable users within specific locations to share and collaborate on data quickly and securely away from the public internet. Such networks boost productivity levels while massively reducing the risk of data breaches.
- Scalability is king with dedicated private networks. If you need to expand your network, simply add a new device and introduce further resources as and when required as integration is effortless.
Taking all these benefits together, private networking provides an exceptionally robust, flexible and secure solution that delivers outstanding performance and services within a secure environment that offers genuine peace of mind.
What are the disadvantages of private networks?
Making a network private can be costly, requiring money and resources to set up and maintain properly. They can also be complex to not only design but to scale. Yes, a device and app can be added easily but there still needs to be a dedicated infrastructure in place to support increasing demand for services, including the right server numbers and network capacity.
These potential roadblocks mean many businesses prefer to partner with a cloud provider to make a network private so they can tap into all the benefits but without the potential drain on time, budgets and resources. Importantly, a reputable provider will offer the right secure private cloud infrastructure and services needed without the business having to worry about managing and maintaining the solution.
What are the use cases for private networks?
Private networks offer a range of business use cases to leverage. We’ve already touched on the security benefits as well as local area networks offered by private networks, but they also offer a host of other crucial functionality for business:
Using virtual private networks (VPN), employees can work from anywhere while ensuring any and all data transfers remain safe and secure. These benefits can be rolled out even further afield, encompassing any offsite work such as in construction, ensuring that all stakeholders – including suppliers – can work together securely via a VPN. Remote optimisation
Business that deals with extremely sensitive data – think finance or healthcare –rely on private networks to share information within a single premises or across a network of offices. Private networking ensures companies managing highly sensitive data can meet all strict data regulations and compliancy standards as well as keep data safe and secure from cyber attack. This also applies to research and development where proprietary data can be shared via private network without risk of interception. Closed open comms
Private networks offer dedicated bandwidth for transactional data. For example, instead of relying on the public internet’s often throttled bandwidth during busy times, retailers can opt for a private network to ensure transactions are processed quickly, and update inventories and stock levels in near real-time. Bolstered bandwidth
Private networking enhances real-time monitoring plus is ideal for supporting emerging technologies such as Internet of Things in sectors including manufacturing. Data from any sensor or device can be sent in real time via a private network, aiding business to optimise IoT infrastructure as well as identify any potentials bottlenecks. Crucially, private networks enhance business decision-making by providing real-world insights based on real-time secure data, not disparate or outdated data sets. Deeper monitoring
Deeper monitoring
OVHcloud Public Cloud lets you design and build your network architecture on demand. By creating private networks, you can implement virtual switches to connect your running project instances in real time, without any service interruptions.
Our vRack private network solution allows you to build complex private infrastructures on a global multi-datacentre scale. You can also expose your vRack to the public internet if you need to publicly expose some of your services.
Get ultimate privacy
Over the years, we have developed extensive expertise, enabling us to offer optimised solutions including virtual private network solutions, plus innovative products such as the vRack, which interconnects your solutions via a secure private network. Our powerful anti-DDoS technology is also included in all our products.
Access networking expertise
Most OVHcloud products include a pre-configured static IPv4 address. Providing outstanding flexibility, those products can also be used with Additional IP (previously known as Failover IP), which are IP addresses that can be easily assigned and moved from one service to another.
Add flexibility to apps
