Historically this was achieved using private connectivity between head office and regional offices. This had two drawbacks, firstly cost and secondly that this could not cater for employees that were off site (roaming). This inflexible approach forced companies to maintain multiple access methods often consisting of expensive fixed links and dial in services.

 

This whitepaper aims to document the risks that can be introduced by using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to enable connectivity to all company sites, either over the internet or a provider’s shared infrastructure (MPLS, IPVPN, NetEquip, IPClear etc) if not carefully managed.