For any business, staying ahead of the competition means staying connected at any time. Hence every organization aims at offering comprehensive resource accessibility, even to its remote workers. That’s when a remote access VPN comes into the picture. It shares your organization’s responsibility of granting secure access to the business resources.

With a Remote Access VPN, users can connect to the intended private network and access their resources with the help of a VPN client, which may be web-based or software. In other words, your information that travels through the internet gets encrypted and encapsulated by a secure VPN gateway.

This encryption technique plays a vital role in communicating your information to the remote destination. It scrambles your data and keeps it out of reach from notorious third parties like hackers and snoopers. In this way, a remote access VPN grants secure access for teleworkers that safely connects them to their organization’s network.

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How does a remote access VPN work?

Remote Access VPN benefits an organization with a big and roaming user base. Your organization might have a salesforce that travels frequently, and they might need to access the organization’s data stored in the corporate or branch offices during the journey. With a remote access VPN, you can securely share your organization’s resources through the internet any time.

The process:

  • A VPN client installed on the remote user’s desktop recognizes the destination network as a part of remote VPN encryption network.
  • This client then begins to negotiate with a remote gateway (firewall) to build a secure VPN tunnel.
  • This negotiation process involves encryption schemes and methods to be adopted while establishing a VPN tunnel.
  • Once the tunnel negotiation gets over, the client can exchange encrypted communication with the remote gateway.
  • After the encrypted data from the remote device reaches the remote gateway, it gets decrypted and shared with the internal or protected servers.
  • Now, the remote server acknowledges the user through the remote gateway. Data from this gateway travels through the secure VPN tunnel over the internet and reaches the remote user.

Now let’s understand the two significant VPN software blades that facilitate the process of secure information exchange.

1) IPSec VPN – IPSec VPN supports both remote access and site-to-site VPNs.

2) SSL VPN – Also known as mobile access VPN, SSL VPN supports only remote access connections

While both the blades offer an equal amount of data confidentiality, integrity and authenticity, let’s see the other features that differentiate each other.

IPSec VPN SSL VPN
Supports both TCP and UDP Supports only TCP
Runs deep inside the layer 3 of OSI model Encrypts all layer 6 applications
It is client-based, requires authorized installation and management It is clientless and just requires a browser
Seamless to use Not seamless, requires multilevel authentication

Other than the data security it offers, setting up a remote access VPN is cost-effective. With multiple VPN providers offering competitive business VPN plans, it also easy to upgrade your subscription plan as your business grows.

As mentioned in the beginning, a remote access VPN benefits both personal and business users. Again, it becomes essential to understand why exactly you need a specific type of VPN service. If you are contemplating choosing a VPN type for your non-business activities, remote access VPN could be the right option. Remote access VPN meets your privacy as well as your entertainment needs. It unblocks geo-restricted content for you. It also ensures to protect your online privacy. Remote access VPNs restrict user access to just one, which signifies the fact that it is designed for personal use. Nevertheless, if you are a digital nomad that remotely communicates with your organization’s network, remote access VPN could be the pick of the litter.

Get a Secure Access to your Remote Work Space.

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