---
title: "Connecting your data sources | Grafana Labs"
description: "How to connect based on where your data lives"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## Where does your data live?

| Location            | Solution                          |
|---------------------|-----------------------------------|
| Public internet     | Direct connection                 |
| Private VPC/network | Private Data Source Connect (PDC) |
| On-premises         | PDC or VPN                        |

> **PDC lets you query private data sources without opening inbound firewall rules.** Available for Grafana Cloud only.

## How PDC works

[PDC Architecture: Grafana Cloud connects through the PDC Agent to data sources in your private network](pdc-architecture.svg "PDC Architecture: Grafana Cloud connects through the PDC Agent to data sources in your private network")

**PDC is best for:**

- Databases in private VPCs
- On-prem data sources
- Strict network security requirements

> **Supported data sources**: PDC supports 50+ data source types including Prometheus, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Loki, and Elasticsearch. [See the full list and known limitations](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/connect-externally-hosted/private-data-source-connect/#pdc-known-limitations).

## Learning path

Deploy private data source connect step by step.

[Private data source connect](/docs/learning-hub/intro-to-data-sources/02-choose-your-path/20a-pdc-journey/)