Definition
A cloud VPN is a VPN whose server-side infrastructure runs in a public cloud — AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, DigitalOcean, and others — rather than on physical hardware in a corporate data center. The term covers two related but distinct concepts: managed VPN services from cloud providers (AWS Client VPN, Google Cloud VPN, Azure VPN Gateway) that connect on-premises networks to cloud resources, and consumer or self-hosted VPNs deployed on cloud virtual machines.
Why It Matters
As workloads have moved off corporate servers and into cloud environments, the traditional VPN model — connect to headquarters, then reach internal services — has become inefficient. A cloud VPN places the gateway near the workload, reducing latency and eliminating the 'hairpinning' of traffic through a corporate data center. It also scales elastically: a cloud VPN gateway can absorb a sudden spike in remote users without ordering new hardware.
Self-Hosted Cloud VPNs
On the consumer side, projects like Algo, Streisand, and OpenVPN Access Server make it straightforward to spin up a personal VPN on a cloud VM for a few dollars a month. The advantage is full control and a guarantee that no one else is logging the traffic; the disadvantage is that you become the sole user of an IP address easily attributable to a cloud provider — many streaming services and websites detect and block traffic from cloud-hosted IPs.