What it is
A VNet is your private network in Azure. Subnets, NSGs, route tables, peering, and private endpoints live here. It decides what is reachable from where.
Public IPs and open NSGs are the shortcuts. Private endpoints and carefully boring NSGs are the grown-up version.
AWS VPC is the twin. If your whiteboard shows five identical boxes for AWS and Azure, ask whether peering and DNS were actually designed or only drawn.
Why it matters in the meeting
JJ asks if two clouds mean two networks. Raja says yes in one line. Bart asks whether they are peered and whether that peering was reviewed. The Slack message gets two reads.
"It is in the VNet" is not a security answer. Which subnet, which NSG, which public IP still exists "for the demo"?
Real world
NSG rules that allow the world on management ports are how scanners find you before customers do. Temporary is the most permanent word in networking.
Private endpoints keep PaaS traffic off the public internet. Leaving the public endpoint enabled anyway is wearing a belt and walking around without trousers.
A VNet is the fence and the roads on Azure. Draw it. Restrict it. Peer it on purpose. Folklore networking is how test finds prod.
What to ask
- Do we have a diagram that matches the live VNet?
- Which production resources still have public IPs?
- Are NSGs least privilege, or allow-many with a smile?
- Is VNet peering deliberate and reviewed, or accidental sprawl?
You just knew a little more Jack than you did five minutes ago.
All concepts