VPN Articles and News

3 Reasons Every Small Business Should Consider a VPN

By Paul Liu
Tuesday, July 14th, 2015

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) offer a cost-effective way for small businesses to securely share data between offices or employees. A VPN network utilizes a public network (usually the internet) to connect securely to a private network, such as a company’s intranet, thereby allowing confidential communications over the public network. Essentially, it establishes an encrypted tunnel across the internet, which provides remote offices or individual employees with secure access to your organization’s network.

If you’re a multi-site business that relies on interconnectivity amongst your employees or with clients or other businesses, then you should consider using secure VPN for business. It’ll not only provide you with an affordable networking solution for sharing non-time-critical data across your organization, but also give you that much-needed staff productivity tool, for network access while working from home or travelling.

Traditionally, connecting to internal networks was done through private phone lines over secure connections. But, with access from global locations being on an upward trajectory and almost the default, most organizations now rely on the Internet or some other type of public telecommunication infrastructure to facilitate access to internal networks. This typically requires the use of a secure tunnel or VPN to allow for seamless, secure connectivity using strictly defined security measures.

Reasons Why You Should Consider Secure Business VPN

1. Extended Geographic Connectivity
In today’s interconnected and global business environment, a small business’s productivity, profitability and competitiveness increasingly depend on the ability to share information in a timely, secure manner. Secure business VPN allows businesses to get a safe and reliable private connection between computer networks through the intent. In doing so, it extends geographic connectivity, keeping customers, suppliers, partners, and employees connected to corporate data whether they are in branch offices or on the road.

2. Reduced Operational Costs
Secure VPN for business allows an organization to expand its geographical connectivity with enhances security and reduced operational costs compared to those of conventional networks. Through VPN, small businesses have more opportunities to exploit the Internet’s potential and connect employees, partners, clients and other entities in a secure, cost-effective way. Businesses can set up multiple remote locations as virtual local networks, thus eliminating the need for dedicated Internet connection rental costs. Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity maintenance costs through VPN are very low compared to traditional dedicated line solutions.

3. Enhanced Productivity and Security
Business VPN offers a flexible and cost-effective means of ensuring that employees, customers and suppliers have easy, secure access to data, replacing the need for costly private services. Today, VPNs are no longer confined to site-to-site connections. Remote access is always instantly available to authorized users, which allows them to connect to the corporate network from any place in the world, as long as they have an internet-connected device.

Anytime, anyplace network access also gives employees unmatched flexibility regarding when and where they perform their job functions. VPN technology accommodates employees who desire network access from home or while on the go, after hours and weekends. Using VPN, employees can work from home or essentially take their office wherever they go, thus reducing transit time and transportation costs for workers and overhead costs associated with office space, as well as increasing response times and enabling work without interruptions present in an office environment. All these advantages definitely result in revenue increases, lower operational costs, increased productivity and improved responsiveness to customers.