VPNs more accessible than ever

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology is a powerful mechanism for insuring private transactions over the Internet. Using a cryptographic method with two keys to encrypt data, SSL is stable, secure and can be trusted to guarantee the safety of data transfer.

Web sites have been using this protocol to obtain sensitive user information and conducting other activities where data must be transmitted securely online. But SSL is now available in other areas, most notably in powering virtual private networks (VPNs) and, as such, has much to offer small to medium enterprises (SMEs).

Virtual private networking is the power behind a remote workforce and is also used to connect sites or business franchises into one cohesive network. With the uptake of broadband and mobile Internet connectivity, the use of VPNs for workers to connect back to the office network and access the resources they need in order to do their jobs is greater than ever. Businesses are also able to make company-wide resources available to remote locations.

However, the use of VPN technologies has been mostly out of the reach of SMEs, as they cannot usually substantiate the huge costs involved with owning and running a VPN. It requires infrastructural costs and bandwidth allocations along with skills for its implementation and maintenance. The benefits of using VPNs largely outweighed the costs for any but large enterprise players.

VPN technology is now becoming increasingly accessible for smaller businesses as products make their way into the market with innovative ways of enabling VPNs and without the associated implementation and maintenance complexity.

The range of SSL-based VPN concentrators available from these vendors generally power remote access over multiple concurrent tunnels and are tailored specifically for SMEs.

As SSL is largely browser-based, SSL VPN products make use of a browser to access the corporate network. The upside of this is that no client is required on a user's laptop or other computers needing access. So long as a browser is available, the VPN is accessible.

This is not done with a compromise to security. On the contrary, SSL technology has proven itself in the world of e-commerce. SMEs can rest assured: if it's good enough to protect the online activities of major financial institutions such as banks, it should be good enough to protect their corporate resources.

These products also generally sport an easy-to-us interface for the establishing and configuring of the virtual network, meaning smaller businesses also save on skills for implementation and maintenance and, in most cases, should be able to set up and maintain the networks themselves.

The VPN is no longer the sole domain of the enterprise, thanks to SSL technology and innovative vendors.

Andy Robb, Duxbury Networking's chief technologist and technical advisor

This is also opening up possibilities for the use of VPN technology in new areas. People mostly associate VPNs with mobile workers, but it is not often associated with linking franchised retail presences, for example. SSL VPN technology is changing this perception and opening up VPN technology to businesses that would never have considered using it before.

Another factor driving this is that SSL VPNs are easier to maintain. With an Internet protocol security VPN, when a link goes down it requires attention on both ends to get it going again, meaning that a call-out is required to both sides of the link. But with SSL, just one box would require attention if the virtual network goes down.

Another cost saving component comes with the sharing of resources over an SSL VPN. Accounting packages can be centralised along with other services, for example, and fewer licences are necessitated in some cases as a result. The technology can also cheaply drive information repositories, which do not need to be replicated and kept in sync at several sites.

Applications can easily be shared in this way using terminal services over the SSL VPN connection, once established. Many software vendors also allow for this form of usage in their development.

The VPN is no longer the sole domain of the enterprise, thanks to SSL technology and innovative vendors. With security concerns and network perimeters slowly disappearing, SMEs finally have a safe and powerful option for making use of VPN technology - and it won't cost them an arm and a leg, either.