What Is a Corporate VPN?

A corporate Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates a secure, encrypted connection between employees’ devices and the company network, ensuring safe access to resources and protecting data from cyber threats—no matter where employees work.

Why Are Corporate VPNs Important?

Employees today are spread across the globe – often using public internet connections for work – while corporate networks handle traffic from various remote users, applications, and third parties at once.

Left unprotected, this complex web of online activity could expose employees and companies to cyber threats, and managing it all would simply be a nightmare for IT teams.

This is where business VPNs come in.

They encrypt the flow of data to and from a company’s private network, ensuring that everything – from browsing history to login credentials – remains private, even from internet service providers. 

This brings several key benefits:

• Seamless Remote Work: A corporate VPN allows remote employees to securely connect to their company’s network without exposing themselves to threat actors, even when using mobile devices or public Wi-Fi.
• Compliance: Many industries require businesses to protect key personal and financial information. Corporate VPNs help them comply with these standards and avoid costly penalties.
• Access Control: VPNs provide company admins with granular control over employee access permissions, helping them make sure that only authorized users can access company resources.
• Team Collaboration: With secure access to the private network, teams can share resources and collaborate easily, no matter their location.

Corporate VPN vs. Consumer VPN

Corporate and consumer virtual private networks might both use encrypted tunnels to secure data, but they’re built for different purposes. Their key differences lie in:

• How they are used
• Who they are designed for
• The level of control and security they offer

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Types of Corporate VPNs

Here are the three most common types of corporate VPNs:

• Remote Access (or Client-to-Site): This VPN securely connects remote devices to the company network. It encrypts data during transit, keeping sensitive information safe, even on unsecured Wi-Fi, making it ideal for remote employees. Remote access VPNs use a client/server model, which requires software to be installed on each connecting device.
• Site-to-Site: This type of connection links multiple corporate networks over the internet, making it ideal for larger businesses with teams in different locations. It allows organizations to securely share resources and quickly transfer data, and gives admins a greater level of control. 
• Cloud VPNs: Cloud VPNs provide secure access to cloud infrastructure, ensuring that data and resources stored in the cloud are protected and only accessible to authorized users.

Key Features of Corporate VPNs

Here are some of the key features of corporate VPNs – highlighting why every organization should rely on them with their employees:

• End-to-End Encryption: Corporate VPNs use strong encryption standards to secure connections between devices, protecting everything from mobile devices to laptops, tablets, and desktops from threats.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Most corporate VPNs can enforce MFA for an extra layer of security beyond passwords.
• Scalability: Corporate VPNs can support multiple devices and connections at once, allowing businesses to scale at ease.  
• Centralized Monitoring: Corporate VPNs allow IT teams to monitor and log network activity, manage access permissions, and quickly identify security threats—all from one place.
• Integration with Security Frameworks: Many corporate VPNs work seamlessly with security features like zero trust architecture, antivirus and endpoint protection, and real-time threat detection and behavioral analysis tools.

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How to Set Up a Corporate VPN

Not sure how to set up a corporate VPN?

It can seem difficult at once, however, it only entails five simple steps:

1. Prepare for Setup: Choose a VPN provider, making sure it’s compatible with your network, hardware, and business needs.  
2. Configure Your Network: Set a unique IP address for each device, adjust your router settings to enable VPN support, and remove any outdated VPN software.
3. Install the VPN Software: Download and install the provider’s VPN software on all devices that will use it, including desktops, mobiles, and routers.
4. Test Your VPN: Verify that your VPN connection is secure, your IP address is masked, and remote employees can access necessary resources.
5. Assess Performance: Test the VPN’s speed, ensure reliable connections, and make sure it can scale as your business grows.

Read More: How to set up a corporate VPN. 

Compliance and Corporate VPNs

For highly-regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and government, staying compliant is key when rolling out any new security tools. 

A corporate VPN can help businesses:

• Protect Personal Data: Keep customer and employee data secure to meet important regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Show Due Diligence: Demonstrate your commitment to safeguarding sensitive information, especially if your company faces an audit or data breach.
• Avoid Fines: Reduce the risk of costly penalties by ensuring secure connections across remote devices and endpoints.

Challenges in Managing Corporate VPNs

Of course, corporate VPNs come in with their unique challenges – here are some of the most popular ones:

• Performance Issues: Network speed can drop, especially with high traffic or poorly optimized VPNs. Cloud-based VPNs may also increase latency as they need to route traffic through remote servers.
• Complexity: Setting up and maintaining a corporate VPN often requires some IT expertise. Plus, deploying updates, juggling different access permissions, and monitoring the network can be a drain on IT teams’ time.
• Security Risks: If an attacker gets hold of a remote employee’s VPN credentials, they could gain unauthorized access to the company network. VPNs themselves are also vulnerable to attacks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS), credential theft, as well as basic human error—a VPN will only protect your network if your employees switch it on.

Maximize Security with Check Point’s SASE

To protect your private network from emerging threats, you need cutting-edge security. Check Point’s SASE offers secure, high-speed access to both on-premises and cloud resources, supported by zero trust architecture, AI-driven threat prevention, and next-gen security features—such as a corporate VPN. 

Book a free demo today to learn more and protect your organization.

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