Making Private Network Connections Over Cellular IoT Networks – CIC Podcast Episode 8
Written by: Ryan Carlson
Published: December 27, 2022
Welcome to the Conversations in Connectivity podcast! I’m your host, Ryan Carlson.
This a podcast for the IoT professionals and product leaders responsible for growing, executing, and – at times – educating others about the role that connectivity plays within their organization. With Conversations in Connectivity, we give industry experts and IoT specialists a chance to talk about some of the ways smart devices and technologies are powering the modern world.
You can find all of our past episodes on Apple Podcast, Buzzsprout, and Spotify, or by clicking this link.
In This Episode – We Discuss the Value of a Private Network with Soracom Senior Product Manager Felix Hsieh
This week’s episode came out of an internal conversation with Felix Hsieh, Soracom’s senior Product Manager and Customer Reliability Engineer. I came to the call with the desire to learn more about the ways in which private networking has been made more accessible for cellular data connections and entire networks of deployed IoT devices, and Felix more than answered my questions!
In this discussion, Felix shares how a private network over cellular connectivity has historically been challenging, with lots of red tape, delays, contracting, technical hurdles, etc. We discuss the evolution of support for virtual private clouds (VPCs), the role regulations can play on project requirements, and review scenarios of how companies across a variety of industries can implement their own private networks over cellular connections.
One note to call out is there are three acronyms used throughout this episode that are incredibly similar to one another.
- VPN (virtual private network) is a fairly common acronym these days. The functionality of a VPN encompasses so much more than the ability to stream another country’s version of Netflix, and we touch on some of those applications in the conversation.
- VPC (virtual private cloud) is unique to Amazon web services and their ability to have secure web hosting. This on-demand configurable pool of shared resources is allocated within a public cloud environment, providing a new level of security for users.
- VPG (virtual private gateway) is a feature that Soracom leverages within its connectivity platform to bridge VPNs across VPCs. Seamlessly without touching the public internet.
There you go. VPN, VPC, and VPG.
It’s also good to note that this was an internal conversation, so Felix will often talk about how Soracom engineers addressed some of the traditional barriers to setting up VPNs and VPCs that most cellular carriers still struggle with today. It’s not a sales pitch, but I felt that it’s worth calling out upfront.
If You Like Our Podcast, Check Out Our Other Media Projects
The podcast is one of several projects run by the Soracom Media Lab. An initiative with a mandate to create relevant educational and inspirational audio and video content and make it available on the platforms that people already go to get exposure to new ideas about connectivity. Check out long-form videos on our YouTube channel, short-form videos on Instagram, social media platforms like LinkedIn, and how-to videos on various technical forums.
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