The economic advantages of a cost-benefit analysis make it an integral part of any purchasing process. But, the complexity facing some solutions can make a well-rounded cost benefit analysis a complete headache. So, while this isn’t a strict cost-benefit analysis, it is a supplementary guide to your own exploration of the field of business VPNs.
Within are some key considerations that your analysis should take account of.
It’s best to focus on how the right VPN could save or alter your private network’s current topology and price. For better granularity, this analysis splits enterprise VPNs into their two major types: site-to-site and remote access.
The more traditional form of VPN, site-to-site tools create a VPN gateway at each physical location. Encrypted tunnels are then used to send data between each gateway. Site-to-site VPNs drive the connectivity that far-away branches thrive on:
By creating a WAN, employees are able to quickly and easily access data from different office locations with minimal hiccups.
Communication is drastically streamlined, as resources can now be shared – and the speed of data transmission is fast and consistent. To assess the material impact of this faster data transmission, take a look at McKinsey’s drivers of digital-delivery performance: mature technology infrastructure is one of the biggest levers for faster product delivery.
But speed isn’t always a deliverable for all VPN offerings.
Alongside increased revenue, the right site-to-site VPN can deliver further cost reductions to your networking.
Whereas a site-to-site option connects up two or more networks, a remote access VPN allows each individual employee access to your company’s network from any device, anywhere. This has become popular in the last few years – ever since the majority of workers expressed the desire to work hybrid or remotely.
While this isn’t a cost-benefit analysis of hybrid or remote work, it’s vital to view remote VPNs within their larger context: hybrid and remote access is supported primarily by this type of VPN. Without this, remote work becomes either impossible or deeply vulnerable.
The other half of the remote VPN’s cost-effectiveness is in its ability to keep a bunch of geographically scattered employees safe. With no business VPN at all, users are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks.
However, if you’re already using a remote VPN, user security is where a new VPN provider can offer the biggest upgrade.
This highlights the two fields of cost savings that your cost-benefit analysis must be sensitive to: tangible savings (the actualized savings achieved through releasing real estate and reducing hardware costs) and intangible savings; aka, the money you’ve not had to spend on successful attacks.
The basic security premise of offering encryption is no longer enough.
Attackers are now fully cognizant of the fact that, in many cases, the only thing standing between them and complete network access is a stolen password or vulnerability..
This matches the template put forward by Zscaler’s State of VPN Security 2024 report: 53% of enterprises breached via VPN detail how the threat actor moved laterally thereafter. No wonder 91% of respondents are concerned that their VPN is actively harming their overall enhanced security stance.
If zero trust is a goal, a better choice may be a virtual private network that actively provides your security team with overarching network visibility. By first granting secure access via the secure VPN app on phones, laptops, and PCs, your security team is then granted a granular view into every device’s resource access and bandwidth consumption.
Furthermore, if an employee’s device or credentials are stolen, it then becomes possible to quickly block their unauthorized access. This type of VPN is not only a robust first step in securing remote users, but actively designed to seamlessly fit into wider security tech stacks.
Perimeter81’s VPN works like that. While offering full compliance for both GDPR and HIPAA, our VPN tooling brings visibility and security to enterprises that may not have millions already invested into their security tooling.
Achieve cohesive, real-time protection with a sensible budget via Perimeter 81.
