NoVPN Approach Adds a Fork in the Road to SME Remote Work - What do your Remote-Employees Really Need to be productive?

With everyone at home, either connecting to company networks for work or streaming videos for fun, VPN usage is soaring. According to Atlas VPN user data, the first two weeks of March 2020 - with the arrival of COVID-19 - showed a 112% increase in VPN usage in Italy and a 53% increase in the US, a trend that's observable across countries on lockdown due to the pandemic. But, are VPNs always the solution for your SME remote-work requirements? We answer this question and take a look at the newly introduced Cameyo NoVPN this week, so that you can Live Easy, remotely.

VPN Overview

A virtual private network (VPN) connects devices to the internet through a VPN server at another location; users connect to the VPN server via an encrypted tunnel before accessing the internet or a corporate network. This is particularly useful for SMEs looking to unite all offices to one secured network, or for users looking to access geo-restricted Netflix content, for instance. Today, employees are working from home more than ever and SME VPN deployment is being put to the test.

Supporting the SME remote work surge

Although SMEs might be turning to VPNs first to manage the increase in remote work, that may not be the right approach. This is especially the case when employees working remotely use personal devices to connect to corporate networks, and when they only need to access to a few specific apps to be productive, says Eyal Dotan on TechRadar.

When a user connects to a company VPN, traffic from the user's device is directed to and from the company network, allowing applications on the device access to the company network as well. For secured, IT-managed company devices, this isn't usually a concern. However, more companies are allowing employees to work remotely from their personal devices, a policy which Forbes Technology Council member Morey Haber says is "high risk with an undesirable attack vector when permitting access into [the corporate] environment." Personal devices generally have lower levels of malware defense, and are not maintained under the corporate IT authority, leaving them potentially more vulnerable and making company networks susceptible to attack.

In any case, remote workers don't often need access to all that comes with a company VPN connection, which includes everything from company printers and shared files to servers and databases. Rarely, for example, do they need access to company printers from home, and shared files have various other options for remote access, like cloud storage and app-based access (Dotan). As a result, when your SME should use VPNs for remote work, and what for, really depends on what your employees need to get their work done. Enter: NoVPN.

What is NoVPN?

Introduced last week, Cameyo NoVPN's approach allows users to access the internally-hosted applications they need - remotely - via their web browser and a dedicated URL. In other words, as outlined in the figure below, remote workers go to a URL provided by their IT team, which starts an HTML5-rendered RDP (remote desktop protocol) session of the company-hosted web browser. This, in turn, takes the authenticated employee to the company's web app or portal page, where everything that user needs to work is available, and data transfers to and from the user's device are controlled (Dotan).

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(Image credit: NOVPN)
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By accessing company-hosted apps through a browser, users essentially keep their devices separate from the company network, a particularly interesting feature for those using personal devices to connect to work. And, for those workers who only need access to a few apps to work, NoVPN offers a simple way for users to access these apps in company-hosted browsers, while using their regular web browser for all other internet access. Together, these features mean a more secure connection for your SME and faster internet access for your users, respectively.

While Cameyo does advertise that they are "eliminating VPNs for remote work", NoVPN's approach can't be used in every case, and SMEs will always have a need for VPNs (and VDIs - virtual desktop infrastructures - for that matter). So for us, it's about collaboration, not competition.

Collaboration. Always.

Whether your SME should use VDIs, VPNs, or an approach like NoVPN to allow your remote employees to access their work depends on the tasks and the access requirements of the workers in question. There is no one solution to keeping up with the work-from-home surge we're facing, and the optimal remote-work plan will include each of these approaches where they provide the most advantages.

At LeCiiR, we want you to Live Easy, remotely. If you're wondering where to start or how to optimize your remote-working infrastructure, we can build a plan for your SME that includes our secured VPN services where you need them, and offers the best combination of other remote-access approaches for your company's specific needs. For questions on this topic or any others, don't hesitate to contact us and leave your comments.