VPNs Face Extinction

Growth of Cloud and Mobility Redefine Corporate Network Boundaries, Improve Productivity

There are many theories about why dinosaurs became extinct. But when historians look back at the demise of the virtual private network (VPN), no guesses will be needed. It will be clear that the advent of cloud computing, combined with the increasing reliance on mobile devices, was the Big Bang (News - Alert) that resulted in the extinction of VPNs.

When asked which technology trend will have the biggest impact on their company, 41 percent of respondents to a recent LinkedIn survey noted that it was cloud computing. Mobile technology came in second in the survey, with 25 percent. But it’s the snowball effect created by these two trends that is making the VPN obsolete. Greater use of cloud solutions is giving more employees the opportunity to access corporate resources remotely through their iPhones, iPads, and Android (News - Alert)-based smartphones and tablets. With mobility driving worker productivity, enterprises are looking at even more cloud services to support new and innovative use cases, which then spur even greater use of mobile technology. And that snowball will keep gaining steam until client-based VPNs become completely obsolete.

With enterprise employees relying heavily on mobile technology to improve their productivity anywhere and at any time, the cloud – not the VPN – is becoming the preferred way for them to access the applications and information they need to do their work. This trend is resulting in the redefinition of corporate boundaries and VPNs playing a far less prominent role for employees who work outside the traditional office confines.

VPNs have quickly become an antiquated means of client access to corporate resources in a cloud-based economy. A VPN is a very basic concept with a singular focus: securing point-to-point network traffic. When they were created, VPNs were the only way to enable mobile employees to connect securely because most applications were not designed to be hosted remotely via a software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) offering. While VPNs were relatively secure, there were still risks when users were accessing corporate infrastructure over untrusted networks – such as public connections in hotels, Wi-Fi in coffee shops or Internet access at home, which could be rife with viruses and other threats.

Cloud-based solutions, however, deliver better ways for enterprises to manage, secure, and support their IT infrastructure outside the traditional corporate confines. For example, tight budgets have prevented many enterprises from making IT investments, such as new hardware or the latest version of business-critical software. These delayed investments can present risks since aging infrastructure has a limited useful life. The cloud has become a way for enterprises to more cost-effectively upgrade their IT infrastructure, compared to the price tag (News - Alert) of forklift upgrades of in-house hardware and software, including VPN solutions.

Another benefit of the cloud is utility pricing. By moving to the cloud, enterprises can easily scale up or down to meet their changing needs. Cloud providers offer best-in-breed IT infrastructure, including security solutions. And because it is leveraged across many organizations, the cost per organization is a fraction of maintaining IT infrastructure in-house.

Cloud providers may also offer proactive management and round-the-clock monitoring and support of key systems, robust disaster recovery solutions and ways to minimize downtime of critical applications.

More important, perhaps, are the benefits where cloud meets mobile technology. With seamless interfaces and security at the application layer, cloud solutions can more effectively support mobile employees, remote workers and a geographically dispersed workforce, without exposing the corporate network to viruses or other threats that could be introduced if they connected directly through a VPN. 

The Productivity Factor

Today Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is all the rage. Employees are using their own iPhones, iPads, Android phones and other tablet devices for both personal and business purposes. Cloud solutions make it possible to secure any mission-critical applications and corporate data, while enabling employees to use their preferred devices. This increased comfort level, coupled with the fact that they will likely have their smartphone or tablet with them outside of traditional business hours, will enable employees to work when and where they have the time, improving productivity.

In a recent Wall Street Journal “CIO Journal blog”, Shvetank Shah, who heads the IT practice at the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), wrote about a survey his organization conducted of nearly 1,000 employees and the new CEB Technology-Enabled Productivity Barometer, which evaluates aspects of employees’ work performance, such as mobility, collaboration, work efficiency and work quality. Among the key findings of the CEB’s analysis were that enterprises should “prioritize capabilities that enable work location flexibility” and “expand collaboration channels” so that employees “have adequate access to technologies that enable idea sharing and web conferencing.” He noted that “[t]ravel and the rise of alternative work environments have made employees increasingly reliant on mobile-enabled technology. Yet, barely over one-half report that they are able to be productive while outside of their primary place of work. In response, IT organizations must focus investments on maturing mobile capabilities, such as mobile messaging and application access.”

In his blog, Shah also noted that “[w]hen IT is effective at delivering these capabilities, employees are more than five times more likely to be productive.”

Cloud technology can support a number of solutions that will assist with the challenges mentioned by Shah, from providing more work flexibility via mobile devices, to better collaboration, messaging and access to required applications. At the intersection of mobile and the cloud, enterprises have the opportunity to provide employees with a better work experience and achieve improved productivity – something that is not possible with pre-historic VPN technology.

About the Author

Shahin Pirooz, chief security officer and chief technology officer of CenterBeam Inc. (www.centerbeam.com), has a wealth of experience in operations management, account leadership, project management and customer relationship management. Shahin has deep technology expertise covering areas such as IT architecture (development, design, planning and implementation), as well as core tools, operating systems and programming languages. He’s an active blogger for IBM and Computer Technology Review, and has contributed to Forbes, Virtual Strategy Magazine, Baseline and Enterprise Systems Journal, among others.

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