How
many of you know what a VPN is? There is so much information about VPN that
writing about it in a single blog post does not do justice to it. In this post,
I am just going to go over basic VPN information; mainly the definition and it’s
use in business.
While
businesses continue to push for development and get control over the costs,
they are challenged to answer to a volatile financial environment, rising
levels of guidelines and compliances, technical advancements and difficulty in
handling high volume of data that businesses need to count on. With all the
changes the companies are facing, they need to search for flexible and expandable
ways to handle Information and Communication Technology infrastructures,
without compromising on security and dependability.
"A VPN is a communications environment in which access is controlled to permit peer connections only within a defined community of interest, and is constructed though some form of partitioning of a common underlying communications medium, where this underlying communications medium provide services to the network on a non-exclusive basis”. Although this definition maybe the best definition for VPN, but honestly anyone who does not have knowledge on VPN will be confused with the definition.
A VPN is a network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure, like the Internet in order to deliver remote offices or individual users with protected access to their organization's network. A VPN safeguards privacy from security measures and tunneling protocols like L2TP (Layer Two Tunneling Protocol). The data is encrypted at the sending end and decrypted at the receiving end, and it sends the data through a tunnel that cannot be inserted by data that is not accurately encrypted. An extra level of safety includes encrypting not only the data, but also the originating and receiving network addresses. A VPN can be compared with a costly system of owned or rented lines that can simply be used by single organization. The objective of a VPN is to deliver the organization with the same proficiencies, but at a considerably lesser cost. There are three major types of VPN, Remote Access VPN, Intranet based site-to-site VPN and Extranet based site-to-site VPN. The Remote Access VPN is also termed as Virtual Private dial-up network (VPDN) and it is mostly used in settings where remote access to a network turn out to be vital. There are three types of VPN technologies; secure VPN technology, trusted VPN technology and hybrid VPN technology.
"A VPN is a communications environment in which access is controlled to permit peer connections only within a defined community of interest, and is constructed though some form of partitioning of a common underlying communications medium, where this underlying communications medium provide services to the network on a non-exclusive basis”. Although this definition maybe the best definition for VPN, but honestly anyone who does not have knowledge on VPN will be confused with the definition.
A VPN is a network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure, like the Internet in order to deliver remote offices or individual users with protected access to their organization's network. A VPN safeguards privacy from security measures and tunneling protocols like L2TP (Layer Two Tunneling Protocol). The data is encrypted at the sending end and decrypted at the receiving end, and it sends the data through a tunnel that cannot be inserted by data that is not accurately encrypted. An extra level of safety includes encrypting not only the data, but also the originating and receiving network addresses. A VPN can be compared with a costly system of owned or rented lines that can simply be used by single organization. The objective of a VPN is to deliver the organization with the same proficiencies, but at a considerably lesser cost. There are three major types of VPN, Remote Access VPN, Intranet based site-to-site VPN and Extranet based site-to-site VPN. The Remote Access VPN is also termed as Virtual Private dial-up network (VPDN) and it is mostly used in settings where remote access to a network turn out to be vital. There are three types of VPN technologies; secure VPN technology, trusted VPN technology and hybrid VPN technology.
Anybody could
implement a VPN but the necessity for it is where the variance comes in. Many
businesses have mobile employees, remote users, or company partners that may
need to connect to the company network or access resources, information, or
just complete some kind of interaction. In order to do complete this process
safely, so the information is not viewed by outside sources, a VPN would be perfect.
This latest technology unlocks the necessity for both small and large-scale
businesses in respects to network security. Some of the businesses that may be
using VPN include healthcare, retail, manufacturing, general businesses and
banking/finance. In case of healthcare industry, in order for them to be able
to confidentially transfer confidential patient information within the medical
facilities and the health care providers, VPN is picture-perfect. In case of
retail, the availability to securely transfer sales data or customer
information between stores and the headquarters VPN is perfect. For
manufacturing, VPN is good for being able to track inventory of goods and permitting
the dealers to take a look at that and letting clients to buy online. For
general businesses VPN could be used as means of securely exchanging communication
between distant employees. For banking/financial industry VPN can allow account
information to be transmitted securely within different branches and
departments.
The future
should anticipate networks to join to design an integrated VPN to match the
numerous different businesses that will shortly enter the market. Since greater
numbers of VPN users are presently big businesses, smaller businesses should
start to join the movement due to the growing variety of VPNs to pick from.
Furthermore, designing enhanced protocols will also progress VPNs.
References
California State University Edu. (2002, November 22).
VPN Report. Retrieved March 02,
2016, from California State University Education Northridge:
www.csun.edu/.../VPN%20report
Huston, P. F. (n.d, n.d n.d). VPN. Retrieved March 02, 2016, from Emory University Education:
http://www.emory.edu/BUSINESS/et/P98/vpn/
K, T. (2011, August n.d). Photo Credit: Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) – a key
Business Enabler. Retrieved March 02, 2016, from TOM K Consulting:
http://tomkconsulting.com/news019-about-VPNs.htm
Offley, R. (2012, February 27). Using Third-party Data
Centers. (E. S.-e. Solution, Interviewer) Enterprise System Journal.
Rouse, M. (2015, n.d n.d). Virtual Private Network (VPN). Retrieved March 02, 2016, from
Tech Target:
http://searchenterprisewan.techtarget.com/definition/virtual-private-network
