VPNs: not just secure, but a business enabler

There is pressure on businesses of all sizes to enable remote access to their systems. Companies are having to look at improving productivity while striking a suitable work-life balance for staff needing to work more from home.
Then there's the problem of how best to handle field workers and electronic access for ordering systems for trusted parties such as suppliers and major customers.

Companies have traditionally invested in dedicated remote access servers to handle access for staff in the field, but these often rely on dedicated dial-up or fixed-line connections, making them expensive, inflexible and often slow.

The more flexible, and often cheaper, modern alternative is a virtual private network (VPN), a mechanism for making secure, direct connections between the edge of the corporate Lan and a remote user, using open networks such as the internet and cheap unsecured access such as broadband and wireless Lan hotspots.