Routers & Floating IP in Cleura Cloud

Routers and Floating IPs form the bridge between your private networks and the outside world. They handle routing, translation, and connectivity so that your workloads remain secure inside private subnets while still being reachable from the Internet when needed. In Cleura Cloud, you can design flexible, software-defined networks where routers provide inter-subnet connectivity and controlled internet access, and Floating IPs act as portable public endpoints for your applications and services.

Network routing

Routers manage communication between subnets and the external network. By attaching one or more private subnets to a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), you enable instances in different networks to communicate securely without relying on public IPs. When a router is connected to an external network, it performs Source NAT (SNAT) to allow outbound traffic to the internet while keeping your internal addressing private. You can also add static routes to extend connectivity to remote networks or VPNs. For reference, see the OpenStack Neutron documentation for the underlying networking principles.

Floating IPs

Floating IPs are public, routable addresses that you can dynamically assign to instances or load balancers. They use Destination NAT (DNAT) to map inbound traffic to a specific private port. This lets you expose only what’s necessary, such as a web front end or a bastion host, without changing the instance configuration. Floating IPs can be reassigned instantly between resources, making them ideal for maintenance, failover, or blue-green deployments.

Common use cases

• Provide outbound internet access for private workloads through a router gateway
• Assign a Floating IP to a load balancer for secure public access to your application
• Move a Floating IP between instances to perform rolling upgrades
• Route to on-premises environments via VPN with static routes
• Keep internal services private while exposing only necessary endpoints

Design considerations

Plan your network layout to minimize the public surface area. Use security groups to restrict access, and allocate Floating IPs only where necessary. Each Floating IP is a limited, chargeable resource so release unused ones when you no longer need them. Routers and Floating IPs are region-aware; for high availability (available in Cleura Compliant Cloud), distribute workloads across multiple zones and automate Floating IP reassignments using the Cleura Cloud API or CLI.

Integration with other networking features

Routers and Floating IPs connect private networks within your VPCs to the public internet or other Cleura services. They work in concert with Security Groups and Firewalls to define traffic boundaries and enforce access rules across internal and external paths. Routing, NAT, and IP management are handled regionally, keeping all data traffic within Cleura’s European infrastructure.

---