Remote Access VPN: What It Is and How It Works?

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, your business may be accommodating more work from home (WFH) employees than ever before. If your teams often operate remotely, frequently travel for business, or use their own personal devices for work purposes, it’s vital that you offer them a safe way of connecting to your computer systems. 

There are few more effective ways to accommodate an increasingly WFH workforce than to utilise remote-access virtual private networks (VPNs) as a means of keeping them securely connected. 

(Image: McKinsey)

As the data above shows, the vast majority of employees globally prefer to work from home at least three times a week in the future. This indicates that the pandemic has started a trend that’s likely to see remote work become far more prevalent over the coming years. 

This shift carries significant ramifications for remote security, and will make the use of remote-access VPNs essential for many organisations. But what actually are remote-access virtual private networks and how can they help to keep businesses secure with their WFH teams? Let’s delve deeper into the technology and how it may help your business:

What Are Remote-Access VPNs? 

In a nutshell, remote-access virtual private networks enable safe and secure access for company employees who are working remotely to use applications and share company data. These VPNs actively encrypt all of the traffic that’s sent and received by users between their home locations and corporate data centers. 

How do remote-access VPNs bring security to businesses and their remote workforce? The virtual private network sets up a tunnel between the company’s network and the remote user – even if said user happens to be working from a public location like a coffee shop or park. 

These secure connections can work on public and open WiFi networks because the VPN enables the traffic to be entirely encrypted – making the information impossible for any prying eyes to interpret. 

(Image: ResearchGate)

The tunnels established between the WFH employee and the business enables the remote-access VPN to create a working experience that’s extremely similar to that of an office environment. 

With the help of remote-access VPNs, it’s possible for data to be shared between teams without a business needing to worry about the communication being intercepted or meddled with. 

Why Remote-Access VPNs Are Essential to WFH Businesses

Utilising remote-access VPNs offers plenty of advantages for organisations. The key benefit is of course the security that you can deliver to your remote employees. When outside of the office, employees have the ability to share confidential data that’s fully encrypted through the VPN – meaning that even if a hacker intercepts the information, it would be of no use to them whatsoever. 

This perk can be particularly vital if your employees are travelling for work and using public WiFi services in a hotel or populous location. With the help of remote-access virtual private networks, your employees won’t have to worry about leaking vital information – whether they’re at home or attending a conference in Montreal. 

Another perk of remote-access VPNs is that they offer companies a significantly more cost-effective way of securing the data sent by workers when away from the office. The initial costs associated with setting up the VPN is low and most businesses offer scaling options to help provide coverage as the company grows and expands its teams. 

As workforces become increasingly remote, there are few more effective ways of ensuring that employees can safely work from home than through enlisting the help of a remote-access VPN. In terms of cost-effectiveness and quality of encryption, they may play a significant role in making the future of remote work secure for all. 

Applications of Remote-Access VPNs For Businesses

There are a number of different actions that remote-access VPNs perform for businesses to ensure a comprehensive level of security for employees and their organisations alike. Let’s take a deeper look at some of the different ways in which remote-access VPNs can benefit businesses: 

• Greater Security for BYOD Working Setups: Remote-access VPNs enable employees to safely encrypt their traffic, no matter where they’re working from or on what device they’re conducting their business. This means that you no longer have to access office worktops to get work done in confidence. 

• International Quality Assurance: With a remote-access VPN, your quality assurance team can use the technology to change their geographical location with ease and check the quality of your service across different international markets – a great asset for multinational businesses. 

• Automated IP Whitelisting: It’s also possible to block out threats whilst also working to whitelist trusted static IP addresses and allowing access to trusted sources online. 

• Boost Overseas SERPs: Thanks to the ability to utilise remote-access VPNs whilst altering your geographical location on the server, it’s possible to monitor and manage your marketing campaigns for overseas audiences as a means of ranking more favourably on search engine results pages. With the help of this VPN, you can manage your ads and keyword performance in all of the countries that your company has a presence in. 

• Scale Ahead of Your Competitors: Remote-access VPNs can help you to create different content for audiences based on the nations that they’re accessing your site from. VPNs can help you to customise your websites with native text, images and currency to help boost your conversion rates ahead of your competitors. 

• Access Region-Locked Content: Through the use of a remote-access VPN, it’s also possible to mask your true location and to get around online censorship regulations. This can help your business to access VoIP apps, social networks, locked sites and other online functions. 

In a world that’s becoming increasingly remote, the onus is on businesses to work to ensure their operations are as safe as can be without the security of office networks in place. In enlisting the help of a remote-access VPN, it’s possible for your organisation to enjoy the security of fully encrypted employee connections whilst also gaining some advantages over competitors with the ability to monitor overseas operations and web performance.