Chapter Four

Networking

Seven services for private connectivity, traffic management, and edge delivery. VPC is the foundation; everything else in this chapter builds on it.

7 services

Networking is the layer where most architectural decisions become irreversible. CIDR ranges chosen in week one constrain everything that follows; firewall defaults set early either protect or expose every workload downstream; the choice between Shared VPC and VPC Peering shapes how product teams interact with platform teams for years. This chapter covers the seven services that define those decisions, starting with VPC — the canvas everything else is drawn on.

VPC — the Foundation for Private Networking

Edge & connectivity services

These integrate with the VPC — but Cloud CDN, external load balancing, and public Cloud DNS run at Google's edge, not inside it.

Cloud Load BalancingDistributes traffic

Cloud DNSNames & routes

Cloud CDNCaches at the edge

Cloud NATOutbound internet

Interconnect & VPNBridges on-prem

Cloud Firewall

Stateful rules on VM network interfaces — return traffic for an allowed connection is permitted automatically. (Serverless, load balancers, and managed services have their own controls.)

VPC — the private network