Networking Security: Atlas
Understand the networking security features of MongoDB Atlas, including VPC peering, private endpoints, access controls, and encryption in transit. Learn how to configure network security settings to protect cloud-based deployments.
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Upon completion of the Networking Security: Atlas skill and skill check, you will earn a Credly Badge that you are able to share with your network. |
Learning Objectives
Define Transport Layer Security (TLS)
Explain how Transport Layer Security (TLS) works and is enabled by default in Atlas.
Use the IP Access List
Add, remove, and manage what IP addresses can connect to your database.
Identify the purpose of Network Peering
Learn about how network peering offers enhanced security, improved performance, and simplified compliance by creating a private connection between your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and your MongoDB Atlas cluster VPC that bypasses the public internet.
Understand the benefits of Private Endpoints
Learn about how Private Endpoints provide resource-specific access to your Atlas clusters, creating a direct, private connection that keeps your data off the public internet.
Who is this Course Good for?
If you are a developer, security engineer, or platform engineer responsible for connecting applications to MongoDB Atlas in the cloud, the Networking Security: Atlas Skill Badge is designed for you. It is especially helpful if you already understand basic networking concepts—such as IP addresses, VPCs or VNets, and firewalls—and want to apply them to securing Atlas deployments. You may already be running MongoDB in development or production, but want more confidence that your Atlas networking configuration protects sensitive data, limits attack surface, and aligns with your organization’s security standards. Whether you work on application teams, infrastructure platforms, or security operations, this course will help you translate general cloud networking knowledge into concrete, best-practice configurations for MongoDB Atlas.
What to Expect in this Course
This course focuses on securing network connections to MongoDB Atlas so that data in transit remains protected and access to your clusters is tightly controlled. You will start with the fundamentals of network encryption and see how Atlas uses TLS/SSL to secure every connection between your applications, tooling, and database. By the end of this portion, you will understand how encrypted networking protects sensitive information as it crosses public and private networks, and how to ensure clients are configured correctly.
From there, you will work with IP Access Lists to define exactly which IP addresses or CIDR ranges can reach your Atlas deployments. Instead of relying on broad firewall rules, you will practice using access lists to implement precise, least-privilege networking policies that match how your applications and teams actually connect to MongoDB.
The course then moves into private connectivity options that are critical for production Atlas networking. You will explore Network Peering to create private network paths between your cloud environment and Atlas, reducing exposure to the public internet while improving performance. Finally, you will learn how Private Endpoints provide an additional layer of isolation by routing Atlas traffic over dedicated private networking infrastructure managed by your cloud provider.
Throughout, detailed videos connect concepts to real-world Atlas configuration patterns, helping you choose among TLS/SSL, IP Access Lists, Network Peering, and Private Endpoints based on your security and compliance requirements. After completing the course, you will be able to design and implement a secure networking strategy for MongoDB Atlas that aligns with modern cloud security practices.
Summary of the Course
- Understand why network security is critical for protecting MongoDB Atlas deployments.
- Explain how TLS/SSL encryption secures data in transit between clients and Atlas.
- Configure and refine IP Access Lists to control which IPs can reach Atlas clusters.
- Compare public and private connectivity options for Atlas networking.
- Set up Network Peering between Atlas and your cloud VPC or VNet.
- Use Private Endpoints to isolate Atlas traffic from the public internet.
- Evaluate which Atlas networking features to use for different security requirements.
- Apply networking best practices to harden Atlas-based applications in production.
Parker Faucher | University Curriculum Engineer
Parker is a Curriculum Engineer on the Education team at MongoDB. Prior to joining MongoDB, he helped maintain a world class developer bootcamp that was offered in multiple universities. He is a self taught developer who loves being able to give back to the community that has helped him so much.
Daniel Curran | Senior Software Engineer
Daniel is a Senior Software Engineer at MongoDB. Before joining MongoDB, he worked as an Instructional Designer and Content Developer specialising in technical content for a host of international clients. Daniel's goal is to remove obstacles so learners can feel confident on their journey to become masters of MongoDB.
Joel Lord | Lead Curriculum Engineer
Joel is a Lead Curriculum Engineer at MongoDB, focused on helping developers build better applications through accessible educational content. He started his career in software nearly 25 years ago and only paused briefly to pick up a B.Sc. in computational astrophysics from Université Laval. Since then, he’s worked across software development, developer advocacy, and technical education. Outside of work, he enjoys stargazing, homebrewing, and providing emotional support to his two cats, who frequently make guest appearances on Zoom.
John McCambridge | Curriculum Engineer
John is a Curriculum Engineer on the University team at MongoDB. Before his work as a Curriculum Engineer, he was an instructor and teaching assistant for coding boot camps at UT (Austin), and UCLA. Additionally, he worked as a QA engineer for a startup called Coder and spent five years at Apple Inc. John is a passionate software engineer and educator who enjoys taking complex topics and making them digestible for the community.
Davenson Lombard | Senior Software Engineer
Davenson Lombard is a Senior Software engineer at MongoDB on the Education Team. Prior to that, Davenson was a Technical Services Engineer at MongoDB and a Customer Success architect at Confluent. Davenson holds a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering from Concordia University in Montreal.
Sarah Evans | Senior Curriculum Engineer
Sarah is a Senior Curriculum Engineer on the Curriculum team at MongoDB. Prior to MongoDB, she taught and developed curricula for developer bootcamps. Sarah has a MAT degree from Columbia University Teachers College and studied Software Engineering at Flatiron School in Chicago, IL.
Emilio Scalise | Staff Technologist
Emilio is a multi-skilled IT specialist with a vast knowledge in system administration, databases, software development, network security, and cloud solutions. He is currently a Staff Technologist at MongoDB, producing internal and external learning materials. With over 8 years at MongoDB Support Organization, including five as a Staff Technical Support Engineer, he's developed considerable expertise in MongoDB's products and cloud services. In addition, Emilio is a certified MySQL DBA and experienced in technical translations between English and Italian.
Manuel Fontan Garcia | Senior Technologist
Manuel is a Senior Technologist on the Curriculum team at MongoDB. Previously he was a Senior Technical Services Engineer in the Core team at MongoDB. In between Manuel worked as a database reliability engineer at Slack for a little over 2 years and then for Cognite until he re-joined MongoDB. With over 15 years experience in software development and distributed systems, he is naturally curious and holds a Telecommunications Engineering MSc from Vigo University (Spain) and a Free and Open Source Software MSc from Rey Juan Carlos University (Spain).
In this skill badge, I'll show you how to secure network connections to your Atlas deployments.
Network security is key for protecting systems, data, and applications from unauthorized access, cyberattacks, and disruptions.
It ensures a safe transmission of sensitive information across networks and guards against vulnerabilities that could compromise operations.
By prioritizing network security, you'll maintain trust, minimize risk, and ensure business continuity in today's connected world.
Atlas provides a comprehensive set of security features designed to protect your data as it travels across the network, including network encryption with TLS and SSL protocols, IP access lists, network peering, and private endpoints.
These security features work together to protect your data and control access to your database environment.
Throughout this course, we'll explore each of these features in-depth, giving you knowledge to implement the right solution for your specific security requirements.
We'll begin by investigating how to protect your data in transit.
You'll learn about network encryption and how Atlas implements TLS and SSL to secure all communications with your database, preventing unauthorized access to your information as it travels across the network.
Next, we'll explore IP access lists. This feature helps you control exactly which IP addresses can connect to your Atlas deployments, adding an important layer of access security to your database environment.
After that, we'll examine network peering. You'll discover how to create private network connections between your cloud infrastructure and MongoDB Atlas, enhancing both security and performance.
Finally, we'll conclude with private endpoints.
This advanced feature allows you to access your Atlas clusters through dedicated private networking infrastructure, completely isolating your database traffic from the public Internet.
In this skill, you'll learn concepts through detailed videos and then you'll be ready to take a short skill check to demonstrate your knowledge.
After passing the test, you'll receive an official Credly badge to share on LinkedIn so you can show off your knowledge and skills. Let's get started.
