Virtual Private Networks are one of several services you may hire from your local internet or networking services provider. In a nutshell, a Virtual Private Network uses an interlink that goes over a TCP/IP network (such as the Internet) that has several security and latency features enabled, such as direct routing and increased packet security. The earliest type of virtual private network has only recently become virtual; the usual modality for handling networking in an office used to be a local area network with either a client-server arrangement, or a peer-to-peer architecture.



What's changed in the last two years is that what used to take a dedicated (second set) of cabling to handle is now handled securely through the same internet protocols that the general internet is.

The primary benefits of a virtual private network are hard authentication; it provides greater security and (with the appropriate encryption and other security measures activated) can handle military grade security requirements. The secondary benefit is generalized ease of administration; if a new software patch needs to be pushed to all the desktop computers in an organization, a VPN gives most of the benefits of a centralized networking infrastructure while still working through commodity routers and networking gear.

As this service has become more wide spread, many internet service providers (ISPs) have become resellers (or primary sellers) of virtual private networking solutions. VPN solutions have become more important as constant connection devices have grown smaller and more capable; it's no surprise that the largest growth in the segment stems from people needing a secure way for their Blackberries and other smart phones to connect to their secure mail servers.

When looking for a VPN provider, you're comparing them on two broad categories: Security (how up to date they are on their security protocols, balanced by how easy they are to use) and reliability. A VPN that's down all the time isn't providing you (or anyone else) a significant benefit.

Of these two, it's security that truly drives VPN adoption and use. Security requires that the underlying network be trusted, or that the VPN enforce and verify that security mechanisms are in place; a VPN that does the latter is much more intrusive than just using the internet for email delivery. Both of these security models require an authentication mechanism before users can log onto the Virtual Network.

When touching on security and uptime, remember that a VPN provider is basically taking on the functions of what would otherwise be another two to three IT staffers in your organization. The Virtual Network Provider is charged with generating the provided connection with security layers, and with maintaining that access to all users. This often gets merged with the task of maintaining security updates for an entire organization's IT infrastructure, and a VPN provider is often the first step towards reducing the costs of an IT department by outsourcing it.

Before sourcing a VPN provider contract, do due diligence. Look seriously into the needs of your users; there will always be a subset of users who need VPN access no matter where they are; the likeliest candidates are remote field agents and telecommuters working on secure parts of the company's process. But without knowing what you're doing on this, you have no real metric for what will be charged.