With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing popularity of cloud-based services, cloud VPN solutions seem much more practical than traditional hardware-based VPNs. Companies use remote workforces to lower salary budgets and find more capable employees, but they need to provide a secure connection to the corporate network.
Cloud VPN services offer global accessibility, secure connection, and lower costs. Let’s see in detail what a cloud VPN is and why it is essential to your enterprise.
What is cloud VPN?
The term virtual private network (VPN) is a technology that provides you secure, encrypted and anonymous access to a network by creating a private gateway. You can be protected from the threats of outside traffic as this technology masks your local IP address.
Typically, companies that use a VPN would have to deploy it through hardware and an IT team for its maintenance. Setting up a traditional VPN can take months due to this challenging operation. Cloud VPN, also known as VPNaaS, implements this technology to your network as a cloud-based service provided by a vendor in exchange for a fee.
Cloud VPN services don’t require any hardware; they are not deployed in the in-house data centers of a company; thus, they are globally accessible. VPNaaS takes VPN from hardware to cloud, so they are free from any potential overload to VPN equipment or impractical routing of remote users to the corporate data centers and then to the cloud. They provide verified users direct and secure access to the corporate resources (whether cloud-based business applications or company servers) through the cloud without any network latency.
In essence, they provide the same level of security as hardware-based VPNs, but they don’t require any program, equipment, or maintenance. They offer global secure access to corporate networks, and they create a comprehensive structure by protecting both cloud-based tools and the physical servers of a company.
Why is cloud VPN essential to your enterprise?
Cloud VPN services are significantly more efficient for enterprises and smaller startups. Since they can be ready to go in no time and don’t require a lot of money, they are perfectly applicable to businesses with relatively small budgets. But what exactly does using a cloud VPN bring to your company? Keep in mind that also you can benefit from these and improve your company’s security if you buy cloud with VPN solutions from a reliable provider.
Maximum corporate network security
Ensuring the safety of the corporate network can be a bit challenging, especially for smaller companies. Big enterprises might have the budget to create a cybersecurity architecture within their own servers and data centers with special equipment and expensive hardware. But not all companies have the means for that.
Cloud VPN services provide maximum corporate network security as they allow companies to identify permitted users, verify them with the latest authentication methods, set up access layers by network segmentation, and provide secure remote access. These will cover almost all the cyber security needs of an enterprise.
The best thing is, you can also have these features for an insignificant monthly fee without purchasing any hardware or paying an IT team to run it.
Direct and fast remote access
Companies are starting to use more cloud-based applications to operate. According to MarTech’s study, an average employee uses 8 different SaaS for their daily work. Traditional VPNs route these end-users first to the corporate data centers and then to the cloud-based services. This creates a delay that we call “network latency” that jeopardizes employees’ productivity.
On the other hand, Cloud VPNs route your employees directly to the cloud-based applications without any latency regardless of their location. This means that you’ll have direct and fast remote access from anywhere in the world so that you can hire capable employees worldwide.
Secure data transfer by encryption
If you have remote employees or team members that travel frequently, they may be working from various Wi-Fi connections, locations, and devices. If you don’t have a proper cloud VPN solution, the data they transfer might end up in the wrong hands. Cloud VPN solutions ensure encrypted file transfer from anywhere and any connection, whether trusted or untrusted.
Since a cloud VPN is hosted in the cloud, they are free from geographical or device-related limitations. You can use company-provided computers or employees’ own devices; your corporate network will be bulletproof either way as VPNaaS will encrypt all the data.
Scalable & maintenance-free cyber security architecture
Big companies may have overly-complicated cyber security structures, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. A cloud VPN offers a much more scalable and maintenance-free cyber security architecture that is straightforward yet reliable.
First of all, you don’t have to set up new practices for a growing team; with a cloud VPN, you only need to add one more permitted user to the system. In addition, any potential maintenance requirements are taken care of by your provider since you pay them for their service.
However, being this straightforward doesn’t mean it is not reliable. You would still have a comprehensive cyber security system since you can choose specific parts of your corporate network to be available for only particular employees.
In a cloud VPN system, users are only granted access to the permitted data and not the whole corporate network after a series of verification checkpoints. You can quickly implement a least-privilege approach without a complicated structure.
Conclusion
As cloud services emerge as an alternative to cumbersome and limited hardware-based practices, cloud VPN solutions offer a way to enterprises to maximize corporate network security without sacrificing a considerable budget. If you want to implement a comprehensive cyber security structure to be protected from online threats, cloud VPN solutions are the most practical, affordable, and reliable way to do it.
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