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CYBER PATROL by employees has greatly increased as a result of broader technology usage,” explained CompTIA. Avoiding VPN Pitfalls Channel partners should now consider asking customers about virtual private network (VPN) usage, and whether the systems in use are adequately protecting end users and corporate databases. Many companies deployed VPNs for remote users this spring, only to encounter unexpected security and performance issues. In many cases, end users are relying on VPNs that are misconfigured. And as Untangle recently pointed out in its 2020 SMB IT Security report, transitioning large numbers of the workforce onto VPN clients has been a challenge for even the most experienced IT departments. Untangle senior vice president of product manage- ment Heather Paunet explained why IT teams are having such a difficult time migrating workers to VPNs. According to Paunet, IT teams were initially asked to transition large numbers of employees to VPNs. Yet most likely did not test network capacity for increased traffic and traffic types. “Normally, there is a small number of employees who frequently work remotely, usually sales teams, marketing teams on projects or leadership positions,” explained Paunet. “IT teams were now asked to transi- tion their full workforce, every position from HR to finance to marketing to engineering. Each of these teams works with specific applications, and some can be bandwidth intensive, as well as now the additional need for video conferencing. IT teams were faced with testing their current VPN solutions to handle the additional traffic as well as training each employee on the steps to connect to their VPN client. For many this would have been the first time.” Main Issues Driving Cybersecurity Variety of attacks 52% Privacy concerns 52% Number of hackers 49% Scale of attacks 42% Reliance on data 40% Breadth of skills needed 37% Quantifying security issues 35% Regulatory compliance 30% Source: CompTIA SD-WAN vs. VPNs for Remote Security Many organizations deployed VPNs at scale following the outbreak of COVID-19, in an effort to secure large numbers of remote users — only to run into unexpected configuration and performance challenges. Now, many administrators that took this approach are assessing their deployments and questioning whether they’re taking the right approach to WAN security. And one of the top questions that they’re asking is whether they should be using SD-WAN or VPNs. On one hand, SD-WAN and VPNs can both provide encrypted connectivity, while integrating with additional security functions. However, there are some important structural differences to consider. For example, VPNs only can provide direct point-to- point connectivity between users. And while VPNs are very effective for establishing direct connectivity, they’re also notoriously difficult to scale and can be challenging to monitor and manage across a global WAN. What’s more, VPNs are prone to latency and performance issues in multi- location environments, making them better suited for small businesses with a single IP backbone. As Frost & Sullivan analyst Roopashree Honnachari explained in a recent white paper for VMware, SD-WAN solutions provide private network reliability and security over residential broadband links while also providing direct, optimized connectivity to the cloud. “This is different from the traditional VPN based access, which requires backhauling traffic to corporate data centers, thus adding unnecessary delays and reduced application performance for users accessing cloud-based applications,” explained executives at VeloCloud. SD-WAN can also be much easier to deploy and manage across remote networks, giving IT greater flexibility to make changes when they are needed. “Any novice user at home can easily install an SD-WAN edge device, with the ability for the IT administrator to provision and manage the device remotely,” VeloCloud executives continued. In addition, SD-WAN can support optimized traffic routing over multiple transport media. Most of the time, VPNs can only transmit traffic over one network link. So it’s not as simple as saying that SD-WAN is more effective for remote security than a VPN. Agents should use this opportunity to serve as trusted advisors, helping clients understand which option is better suited for their unique needs. 36 CHANNEL VISION | September - October, 2020