Virtual Private Networking (VPN)

VPN is networking technology that lets you connect to your office network over the Internet via a secure, encrypted connection. In other words, it adds a proprietary Internet connection (the "Virtual" part) to your office that only you can use (that's the "Private" part). 

VPN technology has been around for some time, but it used to require an expensive (>$1000/month) business Internet connection and a $5000 router to use it. On top of that, Cisco used to charge over $100 for each copy of the client software! Today, a good VPN-capable router costs less than $500 and it comes with client software for 50 remote users for free! And now it can all be used with any Internet connection, even cellular.

The benefits of connecting to your office network from home or from the road are obvious. You can attach to network drives, e-mail servers and printers the same (albeit at Internet speeds) as if you were there. VPN can also be used to create an "always on" connection between two offices. We've deployed this type of VPN to several customers who've opened branches in other cities or states. This can save companies huge amounts of money by eliminating the need to install servers in branch offices. The branch office users log into the home office servers as if they were in the same building.

Whether you're just wanting to connect to your office from home occasionally or needing to expand to another city with a branch office of dozens, Kelley Data can install the right-sized VPN configuration for you.