Virtual Private Cloud - An isolated, private network within a public cloud provider where you control IP addressing, subnets, routing, and security. Available as AWS VPC, Azure Virtual Network (VNet), Google Cloud VPC Network, and Oracle Cloud VCN. Like having your own secure, private neighborhood within a large city.
A financial services company creates a VPC with public subnets for web servers and private subnets for databases, using security groups to control traffic between tiers.
All four provide a logically isolated virtual network where you define IP ranges, subnets, routing, and security controls. Names and defaults differ (for example, AWS VPC is regional with subnets per AZ; Azure VNet is regional; Google VPC is global with regional subnets; OCI VCN is regional), but the core goal is the same: private network segmentation and controlled connectivity to the internet, on-premises, and other cloud networks.