How often does your business have employees traveling to conferences or working remotely due to circumstances or physical location? With technology improving at a rapid pace, these opportunities are more possible now than they ever were in the past, and depending on the solution implemented, they are far more efficient, too. Of course, one thing that will never change is the need to keep company data secure, no matter what type of Internet connection is being utilized.
A virtual private network, or VPN, can provide businesses with that secure bridge to connect a business to its data, no matter the physical location. We’ll go into detail about how a virtual private network functions, what benefits there are to implementing one, and how you can go about doing so.
Explaining a VPN
Imagine the connection between your business’ infrastructure and a mobile device, be it a laptop or a smartphone, as a tunnel. Depending on the type of connection, it could be either a clear pipe made out of glass, or it could be an opaque one that obscures the contents. When the pipe is translucent, anyone with the right tools can look through it to see its contents, or even intercept it before it arrives at its destination. If it’s opaque, the contents are hidden from view so that onlookers will have to work extra hard to get a good glimpse of it.
In this way, a VPN uses encryption to hide data while it’s in transit. The decryption keys are located on each end of the tunnel, meaning that only the approved devices may decode the data while it’s moving to its destination. A VPN is critical for accessing sensitive company data while out of the office for this very reason.
The Benefits of VPNs
The biggest and best benefit of a VPN is that it provides unprecedented security measures to keep data safe from onlookers while on less-than-secure wireless connections. It effectively keeps your data safe while it’s moving from one place to the other, preventing hackers from stealing data while it’s in transit, as they are known to lurk on networks that aren’t as secure as they should be, like airports, hotels, and other public places.
How to Implement One
Macatawa Technologies can arm your business with an enterprise-grade VPN solution that can keep your data as secure as possible while you’re away from the safety of your office environment. Call us today to learn more at 616-394-4940.
