What is a Business VPN - How to Pick the Right VPN for Business

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled businesses to adapt their traditional practices and adopt work-from-home as a new standard.  That increased the need for business VPN solutions, to provide secure private network connections that would enable employees to securely log in to the company networks. This ensured encrypted data transfers thereby minimizing the chances of data breaches. Business VPNs were mainly used earlier by large enterprises, but as the business environment is changing, secure Business VPN solutions have grown more popular with small and medium-sized businesses as well.

Given the alarming rate at which cybercrimes and electronic data breaches are being reported globally, a Business VPN solution has now become essential for businesses of all sizes.

What is a Business VPN? 

Before we dive into the nuances of a business VPN, let’s understand what a  VPN is and how it is useful.

A virtual private network or VPN enables users to connect their computing device to another network through the internet securely and lets them exchange data after encrypting the connection. It helps you by offering a secure connection over the internet, ensuring online privacy. Owing to this reason, VPNs are widely used by organizations, governments, and individuals.

The term Business VPN is used for VPN solutions that are specifically developed for businesses to enable secure connections between remote employees and the organization’s internal network or connect multiple business branch office networks. Modern business VPN solutions come in the SaaS model and are often referred to as VPN as a Service or VPNaaS.

Why do Businesses need a VPN? 

Business VPN solutions are highly recommended when you have employees working at remote locations trying to access internal resources and you want to protect those resources against data breaches or information leaks. When employees are working on-premises, it is easy for them to directly connect their devices to the internal network without the risk of external interception. However, the chances of proprietary data getting intercepted by outsiders while accessing organizational resources over the public internet are high.

A VPN creates an end-to-end connection using tunneling protocols over the internet, effectively conceiving a secure tunnel for the data exchange between the organization’s internal network and employees accessing it. This makes data resources accessible only to those who are connected to your VPN network.

In a nutshell, Business VPN solutions provide encrypted point-to-point connections ensuring data security and protection. It also denies any kind of unwanted access or visibility into the network, keeping your network and its traffic private and anonymous.

What are the different types of Business VPNs? 

Business VPNs can be of two types – remote-access VPNs and site-to-site VPNs.

Remote Access VPN establishes a secure connection between remotely working employees and the organization’s network infrastructure. This type of solution encrypts all the data traffic before sending it through the secure tunnel established between the network infrastructure and the employees. Being so enables the remote workforce to safely and securely access business network resources and applications from the data source.

Remote Access VPN consists of two key components – Network Access Server  (NAS) and VPN client. NAS is the server or software application on a shared server that is connected to the organization’s internal network. VPN client is the software installed on a remotely working employee’s device. When the user wishes to access the organization’s internal server, the VPN client establishes a  secure tunnel to the NAS and thus allows the user to access the internal network securely. 

With Site-to-site VPN the secure tunnel is established between multiple networks, like corporate networks, branch office networks, etc. This type of VPN is used by organizations with multiple offices at various geolocations which need constant access to the corporate network. Businesses typically choose site-to-site VPNs as it helps employees access connected internal networks as if they are all part of a single network without requiring the use of a VPN  client.

Benefits of Business VPN 

Business data has become one of the most priced possessions and for those organizations and businesses wanting to protect their sensitive data, a VPN is a go-to solution. Setting up a modern Business VPN comes with a host of advantages:

1. Secured data transmission – VPN solutions provide you with a secured connection to the internal networks over the public internet. Since the data is exchanged through an encrypted tunnel, your business and client data will be safe from theft and leaks.
2. Work securely from anywhere – VPN can easily create end-to-end encryption between your employees’ devices and the corporate network, thus enabling them to access the internal network from anywhere. This provides employees with the flexibility to work remotely, hence improving productivity.
3. Cost and time-saving – Modern software-based VPN solutions do not need expensive networking hardware for deployment. They come in a plug-and-play format enabling easy setup, saving businesses time and money.

How to pick the right Business VPN? 

With most organizations and businesses encouraging work-from-home culture  and bring-your-own-device policy, business VPN usage is on the rise. Though  business VPN solutions have many benefits, the deployment of an ideal solution well suited for your requirements is essential. Before picking a VPN for Business, you must consider these points:

1. Scalability – Ideal Business VPN solution must be adaptable to your business infrastructure and not the other way around.
2. Seamless integration – No business would like to use a VPN  solution that would take much of your precious  business hours for deployment.
3. Secure all endpoints – VPN must support all computing devices whether it’s a phone, laptop or tablet. 
4. Trusted Encryption Protocols – The data exchanged between the internal network and the  user device must be encrypted using industry-standard protocols and should remain secure. 
5. Cost and maintenance – No business would want to spend unreasonably on an expensive Business VPN solution.
6. Cross-platform – An ideal Business VPN solution must be supported on various  computing devices like laptops, mobile phones, desktops, tablets etc.
7. Reliable Tech support – You might not want to lose your precious business hours  over troubleshooting technical issues. 

Why UTunnel Business VPN? 

For businesses and organizations looking for a robust and secure Business VPN solution with absolute ease of use, UTunnel will prove to be an ideal solution. It comes with an array of business-centric features:

1. Easy and Instant Deployment – The VPN setup is very easy with UTunnel.  Setting up a cloud VPN or on premise VPN server is hasslefree and the deployment takes just a few minutes.
2. End-To-End Encryption – Utunnel uses the industry standard 256-bit encryption  to protect and secure your data traffic between the internal network and the  devices. So, no more worries about data interception and unauthorized access.
3. Site-to-Site connectivity – UTunnel’s simple site-to-site tunneling setup offers seamless connectivity between the corporate infrastructure and the branch  offices as well as cloud VPCs.
4. Centralized Management – UTunnel’s easy-to-use web console enables you to easily manage your teams and users along with their role-based access privileges.
5. Secure Remote Access – UTunnel enables secure remote access for your employees to access internal network resources from anywhere, anytime. 

With many more made-for-business features like 2-Factor Authentication, Single Sign-On integrations with several identity providers (Okta, OneLogin, G-Suite, and Azure), Split Routing, and External DNS, UTunnel is the apt VPN solution for your business. UTunnel would aid to keep your data resources and  applications safe and secure. Get UTunnel for your business and add that extra layer of security to your business resources.

Business VPN FAQ

1. Are VPNs Secure? 

A well-configured VPN is safe and secure and in fact, they add an extra layer of security to a business’s internal network and resources. It creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your client device and the internal infrastructure. But, not all VPN solutions are made the same. When choosing the right Business VPN solution, keep in mind your specific business requirements.

2. Which is better - Paid or Free Business VPN Solutions? 

The choice between an free and paid business VPN solution also comes to your business preferences. Free VPN solutions are often difficult to deploy, requiring a high level of technical knowledge to manage. In contrast, a paid VPN solution like UTunnel offers better flexibility, and ease of deployment and offers many features that are not available with free solutions.

3. What is the difference between a personal VPN and a business VPN?

Both personal VPNs and business VPNs often use the same underlying technology for their functioning. But, there are some major differences in the way they are deployed and used. A personal VPN helps individual users to mask their IP address, facilitating safe browsing, while being connected to publicly shared VPN servers supplied by consumer VPN providers. However, a business VPN offers the ability to deploy dedicated VPN servers exclusively earmarked for business use. Business VPN solutions possess many more business-centric features such as multi-user management, site-to-site tunneling, static IP address, and granular access control, which are not available with personal VPNs.

4. How do I set up a VPN for my business?

Generally, setting up a VPN server requires a firm grasp of Linux, which might be a hurdle for most small and medium business owners. However, with UTunnel, deploying and managing your Business VPN is easy, letting you to set up and configure cloud or on-premise VPN servers with total ease.

5. What should I look for in a business VPN?

Before selecting a business VPN solution, you must make sure it is scalable, easy to deploy and manage, cross-platform supported, affordable, and has reliable encryption protocols and business-centric features(site-to-site tunneling, SSO, 2-factor authentication etc.).

Here you can find our CEO’s interview with SafetyDetectives