Enterprise VPN Services: Secure Remote Access for Businesses

Most remote employees know to not use unsecured Wi-Fi networks in hotels or coffee shops or airports. However, even good people make bad choices, and it's those bad choices that can put your company's security at risk.

These risks aren't just inside jobs. A 2023 Comcast Business Cybersecurity Threat Report found about 67% of all breaches start with someone clicking on a seemingly safe link as part of a phishing attack. This explains why 80-95% of all attacks start with a phish.

Policies alone won't protect from data breaches, financial losses and reputational damage. That's why a business VPN solution need to be part of your secure remote access strategy.

These VPNs mask user locations and encrypt communications, making them better equipped to keep data safe during transmission.

This article will outline:

Why small and large companies need a business virtual private network (VPN).
The benefits of a specialized business VPN solution versus a legacy or traditional VPN.
How to choose the best business VPN for your specific needs.

What is an Enterprise VPN service?

An enterprise VPN service extends the corporate office to remote locations. Also called a business or corporate VPN, it is the networking service responsible for securing the connections between all users, devices and other digital corporate resources. An enterprise VPN encrypts traffic to prevent unauthorized access.

Unlike personal VPNs, business VPNs offer enterprise-level security to keep data, communications and transactions confidential with advanced features such as:

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Single sign-on (SSO)
Dedicated IP addresses

These features enhance security, streamline user access, and improve network management. Encrypting internet traffic secures data, even over public networks.

This makes it an essential tool for maintaining network security and secure access whether you have are enabling a remote workforce, or managing distributed assets in other locations or the field.

Why Enterprises Need a VPN

Without an enterprise VPN, employees and contractors have to connect to company assets over unsecured or home networks. These networks come with their own set of vulnerabilities like open ports, outdated security protocols, and a lack of user offboarding processes.

With public networks, attackers can exploit insecure Wi-Fi settings and intercept the transmitted information. Publicly accessible networks, even when password protected, can still fall victim to 'man-in-the-middle' attacks.

Both options expose company data to unnecessary threats during transmission because the connection isn't necessarily encrypted or otherwise protected as it would be if it were exchanged over a business VPN.

The bottom line: for small and large businesses, a business VPN solution offers enhanced security, reliability, user management capabilities and ease of deployment tailored to support remote work while protecting corporate resources.

Why Choose a Business VPN Over a Traditional Remote Access VPN?

A big question you may be weighing is whether to pay for a business VPN solution or use one of the free legacy VPN options on the market right now.
Here's some key differences to keep in mind:

Traditional or “Legacy” VPNs

Secure Connection Only. Traditional VPNs establish a secure connection between the user and the internet or a private network, ensuring data is encrypted.
Limited IT Management. These solutions don’t provide robust tools for IT teams to enforce security policies, manage configurations, or perform audits.
Focus on Individual Use. Designed for personal use, traditional VPNs lack the administrative controls necessary for managing multiple users in a corporate setting.

Enterprise VPNs

Secure Access + Policy Management. Business VPNs provide a secure tunnel to company resources while allowing IT administrators to enforce policies, update configurations, and conduct audits remotely.
Centralized IT Control. IT departments can manage employee access to critical systems, monitor connections, and ensure devices remain compliant with company standards, even when employees work from outside the office.
Seamless Integration with Core Systems. Business VPNs integrate directly with company systems, like Active Directory, ensuring devices stay secure and up-to-date with minimal user intervention.

Business VPNs also allow for secure file sharing and network administration, so that remote employees can be effectively supported.

A business mesh VPN (like Tailscale) allows remote workers to securely connect to company resources while simultaneously offering network administrators an easy way to manage the connection and users’ access to resources.

Benefits of a Business VPN

A business VPN solution offers advanced security features, is easy to implement and use, protects sensitive business information, and maintains the integrity of business operations.

Trust network access within a zero trust security framework facilitates secure, policy-based access to applications, reducing infrastructure complexity and enhancing security during hybrid work arrangements.

Let’s explore why these benefits are important for an organization.

Advanced Security Features

Traditional VPNs are primarily designed to safeguard personal privacy and security, so they come with limitations that don’t meet the security standards of modern businesses. For instance:

Generic security features are not tailored to safeguard specific business applications.
Encrypt data in transit, but can lack the advanced security configurations you need for enterprise-level oversight and regulatory compliance.

Zero trust network access is a key feature of modern security frameworks, offering a cloud-based architecture that facilitates secure application access for authorized users without connecting to remote networks directly, thereby enhancing security and enabling efficient mergers and acquisitions.

In contrast, a secure business VPN solution offers several advanced security features to protect your business such as SSO and MFA, end-to-end encryption and fine-grained control over network access.

Ease of Use

Because traditional VPNs were built with individual use in mind, using them for business can complicate setup, risk misconfigurations, and require extra training for employees.

In contrast, setting up Tailscale is a breeze. Its zero-config deployment model eliminates the need for intricate configurations and technical expertise. By automating much of the setup process, Tailscale allows you to quickly integrate secure network connections without disrupting productivity.

Privacy

Traditional VPNs offer some security, but don't always prioritize user privacy. Some providers maintain logs detailing user activities, connection times, and even IP addresses that can be vulnerable to leaks and hacks. Without strict no-log policies, there's no guarantee that user activities remain confidential.

Internet access plays a crucial role in ensuring privacy and security. VPNs like Private Internet Access (PIA) manage internet access effectively for businesses, ensuring safe and controlled connections to SaaS applications and private resources.

Network Resilience

Most organizations don’t just need security; they require a resilient network that ensures seamless operations and proper business continuity even amid unforeseen challenges.

Traditional VPNs are structured around a centralized architecture, so they can be vulnerable to outages if their primary server or data center faces issues.

Monitoring and managing VPN traffic is crucial to maintaining network resilience. A lack of efficient failover mechanisms might lead to dropped connections without automatic rerouting. This means downtime for users and operational disruptions.

Secure VPN Protocols

Secure VPN protocols are the backbone of any effective business VPN, ensuring that data is transmitted securely and privately over the internet. These protocols are designed to protect business data from unauthorized access, interception, and eavesdropping, providing a secure and private connection for remote workers and business networks.

Some of the most common secure VPN protocols include:

OpenVPN: A popular and highly secure protocol that uses SSL/TLS encryption to protect data. It is known for its flexibility and strong security features.
IPSec: A widely used protocol that encrypts data at the network layer, providing end-to-end security. It is often used in combination with other protocols for enhanced security.
WireGuard: A fast and secure protocol that uses state-of-the-art cryptography to protect data. It is known for its simplicity and high performance.
L2TP/IPSec: A protocol that combines the security of IPSec with the reliability of L2TP, providing a robust solution for secure data transmission.

These secure VPN protocols ensure that business data remains protected from unauthorized access, making them a critical component of any business VPN solution. By using these protocols, businesses can provide a secure and private connection for their remote workers, ensuring that sensitive information is always protected.

Setting Up a Business VPN

Deploying a business VPN is a straightforward process that can be completed in a few simple steps.

Choose a VPN provider: Based on your specific business needs. Consider factors such as security features, ease of use, maintenance, latency and compatibility with your existing stack.
Install the VPN software: On all devices and networks that will be using the VPN. This includes computers, smartphones, IoT devices and anything else requiring secure access.
Configure the VPN settings: This includes selecting the appropriate protocol, encryption methods, and authentication methods to stay compliant with regulations and existing policies.
Test the VPN connection: Verify all data is encrypted and the connection is stable and reliable.
Deploy the solution: Provide training on how to use the VPN effectively.

By following these steps, businesses can set up a business VPN solution that provides secure and private access to company resources. This not only enhances network security but also ensures that remote workers can access the information they need without compromising data integrity.

Compliance and Regulatory Requirements

Enterprise VPN solutions must adhere to regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. Compliance with these regulations requires robust encryption, control and auditing capabilities. For instance, GDPR mandates stringent data protection measures, while HIPAA focuses on safeguarding health information.

Enterprise VPNs must provide the necessary tools to meet these compliance requirements and industry-specific regulations. This prevents your organization from being slapped with fines and potential legal actions.

Centralized Management and Access Control

Centralized management lets administrators oversee and control VPN connections from a single, unified dashboard. This simplifies the management of network security and keeps policies consistently enforced across the org.

Access control is equally important. For example, if your company hires contractors, you will want your business VPN to have advanced features like time-based (just in time access) or role-based access control (RBAC), which assigns permissions based the resources needed to do a job.

MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring multiple forms of verification.

SSO allows users to access multiple applications with a single set of credentials and makes login faster.

High Availability and Scalability

To achieve high availability, look for a VPN with features like:

Load balancing distributes network traffic evenly across multiple servers, preventing any single server from becoming a bottleneck.
Clustering groups multiple servers together to act as a single system, enhancing reliability.
Failover mechanisms automatically switch to a backup server in case of a primary server failure, ensuring uninterrupted service.

Scalability lets the VPN solution grow with the business. As you add remote workers or devices, the VPN has to accomodate the extra load without sacrificing performance or security.

Why not try Tailscale for Business?

Tailscale helps companies with its advanced security features such as SSO and MFA, end-to-end encryption, access control lists, and SSH.

Single sign-on (SSO) and multifactor authentication (MFA): Tailscale integrates with your existing identity provider to streamline user authentication. Employees can use their familiar credentials to access the network, eliminating the need for VPN-specific login credentials. Additionally, the inclusion of multifactor authentication adds an extra layer of security, safeguarding against unauthorized access attempts.
End-to-end encryption: Tailscale shields your data, traversing the network with end-to-end encryption. This means that even if data is intercepted, it remains unintelligible to malicious actors. Tailscale relies on the WireGuard protocol, a proven and modern VPN technology, to ensure that data remains confidential and secure.
Access control lists (ACLs): Tailscale's ACL feature gives you granular control over network access so you can define precisely which users have access to specific devices. This feature not only mitigates the risks associated with unauthorized access but also ensures compliance with industry regulations.
Tailscale SSH: Tailscale's SSH service uses integration with access control policies using Tailscale's infrastructure. The result is secure and authenticated SSH connections that are easy to use.

Ready to get started with Tailscale? Pricing starts at $6 per active user per month, or you can use this form to contact us to learn more.