The Secret to Effective Remote Access VPN Management

According to Ponemon Institute, the growing number of employees using multiple personal and company-owned mobile devices to connect to corporate networks is the biggest endpoint security threat today. In this environment, VPNs play a vital role in encrypting remote data access to keep sensitive and confidential company information exchanges secure and private.

Large organizations may have many thousands of endpoint devices accessing the network at any given moment. For administrators, managing all this in terms of individual components is time-consuming and complex. However, a centralized remote access VPN management system can greatly simplify the process.

The secret is in combining intelligence and automation to make remote access management as secure, efficient and productive as possible.

A centralized remote access VPN management platform provides IT administrators with a simple, efficient way to stay on top of constantly changing requirements for secure connectivity, regardless of the increasing numbers of users or endpoint devices.

This single, central administration point ensures the network is never too complex to operate securely and productively.

The secret to an effective centralized remote access VPN management solution is software engineering intelligence and built in systems automation.

They work in combination to give IT administrators the same degree of transparency and control over secure remote access connectivity as they have over the corporate network.

This means, for example, that secure remote access connectivity automatically scales up and down according to the organization’s needs while VPN software updates, policy setting, certificate administration and user access provisioning/de-provisioning can be rolled out across a complex web of internal and remote endpoints with a single mouse click.

Employees are being given more access to company data through various mobile platforms, especially as more and more devices are being brought into to the workplace.

By 2018, 45 percent of the fastest-growing companies will have more smart devices than employees, according to Gartner. Yet, almost 60 percent of companies do not have a formal bring your own device (BYOD) policy.

A central VPN management platform has the intelligence necessary to support a wide range of devices and the latest operating systems, as well as previous versions. It means enterprises without an official bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy can start to implement one.

One of the main reasons cited for the increase in BYOD VPN connectivity is that it helps optimize workforce efficiency.

Sixty percent of workers say they are more productive using VPN or remote access to the corporate network. Further productivity gains are made possible when a centralized remote access VPN management solution is introduced.

In particular, its integral systems automation frees up IT and administration staff from repetitive, mundane tasks and allowing their skills to be directed towards more innovative projects.

Machine intelligence also reduces the risk of human error while software updates may be rolled out quickly and automatically.

Further benefits arising from intelligence and automation within a central VPN management implementation include reduced operating costs and co-existence with existing systems infrastructure.

Once manual operations, like client rollouts, software updates and certificate updates, are automated. Automation also manages client configurations following user authentication. Consequently, there are fewer calls to the IT helpdesk and a reduction in instructions and training for end users.

Software intelligence allows for easy integration with an organization’s existing IT infrastructure, ensuring pre-existing investments in third-party software or hardware are preserved.

Furthermore, support for third party VPN gateways like Cisco, Juniper, CheckPoint and Fortinet allows the enterprise to benefit from systems working in unison to provide network security defense in depth and increased network uptime through high availability.

In summary, VPNs continue to play a vital part in the security strategies of large organizations by ensuring remote data access to the corporate network. Providing encryption for the communications of many thousands of devices, VPNs are a tried and tested way to ensure sensitive company information remains secure and private.

As the number of devices connecting to the network grows, managing all of the VPNs can quickly become a complex, full-time operation.

The secret is to deploy a centralized remote access VPN management system. Its combination of a single, central administration point, software engineering intelligence and built in systems automation helps optimize management efficiency which, in turn, can greatly enhance the productivity of IT departments.