> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://infisical.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Private network access

> How Infisical reaches systems that aren't directly accessible from its own network.

> [card] [Networking docs](https://infisical.com/docs/documentation/platform/gateways/overview.md)
>
> Gateways, gateway pools, relays, and the network architecture that connects them to Infisical.

Infisical uses gateways and relays to reach systems that aren't directly accessible from its own network. A gateway is a process that runs inside a customer network and forwards requests from Infisical to systems on the same network, such as an internal database or an on-premises certificate authority. A relay is a component that connects a gateway to Infisical when a direct network connection between the two isn't possible.

Gateways are required when Infisical needs to access a system that isn't exposed to the public internet, such as a database inside a private cloud VPC, a Kubernetes cluster in an air-gapped environment, or a device management server behind a corporate firewall.


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