Understanding VPN
Many people have difficulty understanding the concept of VPN connections. Abbreviation of VPN means Virtual Private Network.
It is clear what a «network» is. At the basic level, it is the association of two or more nodes in any kind of communication in order to enable them to exchange information. Naturally, it is performed in the most convenient manner and supporting all required services.
The concept of privacy is also obvious. It’s a net that denies access to stranger users, that is, only permitted nodes are within it. If you dig a little deeper, then it is precisely this component of the VPN is the most important, since it determines the number of requirements for this “privacy”.
With the concept of “virtual,” anything is easier. It just means that such a network is abstracted from the physical component – it does not matter on what and how many communication channels it is laid since it works transparently for the participants of the net.
For example, employees of the UK organizations are obligated to immediately use free VPN UK connection to the office network while working with a laptop connected to any wired or wireless net located outside the walls of the organization.
What is the necessity of VPN?
The example above of connection of the remote user to the corporate net is one of the most common VPN scenarios. The user feels like home – or rather, at home, on vacation or on a business trip, he is able to feel like in the workplace and can use enterprise services without problems. At the same time, an attacker can not just sniff out what exactly the user is doing, what data it sends and receives. Moreover, using the VPN-connection is mandatory and is activated automatically on all devices used by employees in companies who are concerned about their own safety. Even the use of the Internet, in this case, goes through the corporate network and under the strict supervision of the security forces.
The second most common option of using is similar to the first, but not the individual users connect to the corporate net, but entire offices or buildings. The goal is the same – to combine the geographically dispersed members of one organization into a single network safely and securely. It can be as large corporate offices in different countries, as well as cameras, signalling and other security systems. Virtual private net can be created inside the company for consolidating and isolation of certain departments or systems.
Not less commonly VPN networks are organized between servers or entire computing clusters to maintain their availability and data redundancy. The frequency of their use is directly related to the growth of popularity of cloud technologies. And all of the above is not temporary solutions: such connections can be maintained over the years.
Thus, this connection is a reasonable and cost-effective solution for both business and private use, as a part of the mentioned methods of application, it helps to protect personal information and to ensure the anonymity in the network, if it is necessary.
