VPN Shopping 101

Printer Friendly Version

Shopping for an expensive and sophisticated product can be a daunting task. However you don't need to know all the answers, as long as you know all the right questions to ask. Here are some guidelines for shopping for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) so that you can get the best value to fulfill your unique requirements and understand the technology you're shopping for.

Technology Background
A VPN is an encrypted tunnel created on a network over which end users and applications transmit data. Though originally VPNs designed to provide a secure channel over public external networks, today as security concerns increase, they are being used increasingly to also secure private intranets.

There are two main types of VPNs, and when shopping for a VPN you need to understand which kind it is that you need. End-to-end VPNs secure data from one wide area network endpoint to another, and secure remote access VPNs secure data transmitted by mobile users who use either dial-up, DSL, or cable broadband networks. An end-to-end VPN can be used on either an extranet or an intranet. End-to-end VPNs can also be used to connect one enterprise (or site) to multiple enterprises (or sites). All leading end-to-end VPNs offer VPN clients that can be used for secure remote access VPNs.

Suppliers want to be connected to their inventory sources, hospitals wanted to be connected to their primary care providers, and companies want to be connected to their ISPs, ASPs, and Web sites securely. Business partners need to share pieces of their intranet with other partners. There are numerous and varied reasons why companies use VPNs to ensure confidentiality and integrity of the data they are transmitting.

VPNs are typically based on three possible encryption protocols: IPSec, L2TP, and PPTP. IPSec is considered the standard, and all leading VPNs should offer IPSec.

Market Analysis and Predictions
After firewalls, the VPN market is probably the fastest growing information security market segment. Even in a floundering economy, the VPN market is growing at a rate of at least 200% a year. Today the VPN market is around a $15 billion market. This market will see increased expansion due to general information security concerns and also due to the proliferation of wireless technologies. VPNs could arguably be the best way to contain sensitive information to a particular business, or organizational division. Any corporate based wireless network should be completed encapsulated by a VPN. Wireless networks are far more susceptible to hackers than wired networks, and without the protection of a VPN, wireless networks are wide open to manipulation. Firewalls do not adequately protect wireless networks.

Relevant Technologies estimates that predictions by other analysts that suggested the VPN market would reach $30 billion by 2003 to be overly optimistic. If the Internet economy had not collapsed these earlier predictions might have matriculated. Nonetheless, the VPN market is well developed with a healthy growth rate and is clearly here to stay. VPN market leaders include Cisco, Check Point, Nokia, Nortel Networks, and Symantec. The VPN market will undoubtedly continue to expand for the foreseeable future.

Implementation Challenges
VPNs are difficult to implement. Even the leading and easiest to configure VPN products require advanced network planning. It is not unreasonable for an information technology division to take a minimum of 30 days to get a VPN up and running. However, part of the challenge of implementing a VPN has to do not just with the technology, but with how fast an organization can manage their internal processes.

End-to-end VPNs often require two different offices coordinating the implementation. If the systems engineers in both offices do not report in to the same organization, the implementation process will probably be slower. If the network management team is slow to assign IP addresses, and need to reconfigure router ACLs in order to implement a VPN, this will also slow down the process. The key to implementing a VPN quickly is to have a fast moving IT team that knows how to work together, without an undue amount of red tape and corporate process overhead. Overly complex and cumbersome management processes can greatly slow down the ability to implement a VPN quickly. Often it is the case that IT shops are short-staffed, and exist in fire fighting mode, with not enough dedicate resources to move quickly to implement a VPN.

Go to page: 1  2