With the modern workforce on the move a lot and things like the cost of fuel on the rise it only makes sense to think of remote access. These solutions help to lower the operating costs for a business and offer greater flexibility to the employee. That is, as long as they are rolled out in a sound fashion. SSL VPNs are one example of a remote access solution that offers people great flexibility. On my personal network I use SSL Explorer as it is a free solution to the home user. It is an extremely feature rich offering. In fact that can also be seen as one of its detractors. For enterprise customers they offer a licensed solution. As well, there is a veritable cornucopia of SSL VPN solutions available. A case in point. I was able to check my email from the coffee shop this morning from my iPod Touch using an SSL VPN.
This morning I found this piece on ARNnet:
Although the benefits of remote access are extensive, the trend challenges organizations to maintain an all-inclusive view of who is entering the corporate network and to create a well-controlled but user-friendly environment to access sensitive information. Security is a prime reason that many organizations resist enabling remote access, or confine it to a select group of users.
Opening the infrastructure for remote connection always involves risk. Without proper safeguards, organizations are susceptible to data and identity theft, network abuse, viruses, worms and other security threats.
To reduce the risk many organizations turn to virtual private networks (VPN), which lets users access the company network via the Internet. Before implementing a VPN solution, it is important to consider not only security issues that can occur when users connect remotely, but to evaluate how much and which information your organization is willing to share over a remote connection.
There is a wide field for you to pick from. Your choice should be based on your security requirements and not what the salesman tells you that you need. This might seem self evident but, time and again I hear stories from folks that bought the wrong solution because the salesperson told them it would do everything that they needed. Even make them coffee in the morning.
If that were true…I’d buy two.
Tags: SSL VPN, Remote Access, Mobile, Mobility
