What Is VPN?

VPN or Virtual Private Network is a group of computers networked together over a public connection – usually the Internet. Businesses use VPN to offer their staff fast secure and reliable access to network resources when they’re geographically away from the local area network (LAN). For an organization that needs to employ a sales force, communication is essential for the productivity of its staff. In the early days, remote connections were made by using leased lines – private network connections that form a wide area-network (WAN) – which were secure and reliable, but these had high costs which increased according to distance. Private internal networks or Intranets were established for employees’ secure collaborations. With VPN, the intranet was made available to staff in different office locations, working from home, or customer sites, minimising data security risks. Furthermore they covered a wider area and were much more cost effective than leased lines.

The main benefits of a VPN connection are:

Security – it protects data on a public network and encrypts it, so that anyone intercepting it cannot read it.

Reliability – Connections should be equally accessible regardless of the geographical distance or the number of connections at any given time. 

Scalability – VPN services expand so you can manage network growth without the need for increasing costs.or replacing the technology altogether.

There are two types of VPN:

Remote-access VPN or Virtual Private Dial-up Network allows a user to connect to the company’s private network from a remote location.

Site-to-site VPN establishes a connection across multiple office locations. The connection is settled via two means, either Extranet based – for companies that operate with customers, partners, or suppliers and wish to make data readily available to them without giving access to their private networks - or Intranet based for companies that have multiple offices in different locations and need to join into one collective private network.