When it comes to securing communications and access within your business or home life you want to know what options are available for you, and most importantly which options are best suited to you moving forwards. Before making a decision or commitment you have to weigh up your options and look at the pros and cons on offer. Once you have looked at the pros and cons you will then be in a position to make a well-informed choice which you will hopefully not regret. So, let’s get down to business, what are your options and what should you be looking at?
Making Choices
When it comes to privacy, protection, and sharing information you will not want to be using a public network, especially if you are sharing highly sensitive or private information, so this leaves you choosing between remote desktop connection vs VPN. With a VPN – a virtual private network you are looking at getting a bit of a mask. A VPN can mask your current location, and replace it with one more favorable, or more relative to your place of work, or place of business.
A VPN creates a data tunnel between one network and an exit node in another location which could effectively be anywhere in the world. So for example, you could appear to be based in an office when you are not. Encrypted, secure, and protected VPN ensures that any information or files won’t be compromised in transit. VPN and RDP may seem the same but they are now, each one provides different levels of access to a remote network that allows you to access resources.
Pros and Cons of VPNs
VPN’s allow you to gain secure and remote access while not revealing your true location. VPN does use a lot of bandwidth, meaning you will need a high-quality, fast and stable connection to get the most out of a VPN. VPN can cause system errors if they are not configured properly, however, errors can be troubleshot quicker and easier than those linked with an RDP.
VPN’s allow you to access resources on a network from anywhere in the world. With a VPN you can encrypt your traffic for your protection. You can bypass content restrictions and you can access a network from home, which is good if you employ remote employees.
Pros and Cons of RDP’s
RDP is good as it allows you to screen share, and although you are more limited with what you can do it is easier to use than a VPN. RDP not only allows you to access network resources but allows you to have access to the resources on a single computer. RDP’s are not overly secure and quite often access is easy to get even for a novice. RDP’s can be more challenging to troubleshoot as and when errors occur, if your bandwidth isn’t good enough you could find it will not be able to keep up and handle your workload. RDP’s may be able to give you and your business a wider range of processes this is simply because it allows you to access both the network and your computer terminal. If you decide to run RDP by itself it will be OK but you must ensure that you maintain high levels of safety, security, and encryption.
Ultimately you have to do your due diligence to decide which option is right for you. After doing your research you may decide that utilizing both VPN and RDP is the right way to go. It is important to remember that VPNs and RDPs can be run on Mac and Windows. When moving forwards you have to focus on security as well as access, especially if you have employees remotely based all over the world. Ask your employees to get involved with your decision, and ask for their feedback, especially if they are the ones who will be using either a VPN or RDP daily.
There are still lots of people who don’t have a brilliant internet speed or unlimited usage and this could effectively rule out the use of a VPN. If you have any additional concerns or queries that you need answering or resolving then you may find it beneficial to speak to VPN providers and RDP providers at your earliest inconvenience. Getting together everything you require both from internal research and external research will allow you to make an informed choice and selection that will be beneficial to your business and your employees.