Top 4 VPN Alternatives In 2024
According to recent reports, nearly 45% of organisations confirmed experiencing at least one attack that exploited VPN vulnerabilities. Not all VPNs are safe; some are easy targets for hackers due to weak encryption protocols or flawed security measures. Therefore, some users actually face threats like social engineering, ransomware and malware attacks.
Therefore, for safe and secure business infrastructure, it is crucial to understand VPN, its benefits and drawbacks, and, most importantly, the four best VPN alternatives for businesses.
What is a VPN?
VPN is a technology that aids in creating a secure encrypted connection over the Internet. That means that when data is transmitted through the Internet, which is a less secure network, the information remains protected against unauthorised access.
VPN uses tunnelling protocols, so users are able to establish a secure connection using their device and VPN. Protocols ensure that data is passed through an encrypted connection, making it hard for hackers to gain unauthorised access to information. With a VPN, you mask your IP address to connect to a website.
Advantages and Disadvantages of VPN
| Advantages of VPNs | Disadvantages of VPNs |
| VPN protects privacy online | VPN hampers your connection speed. |
| It easily bypasses geographical restrictions. | There is a lack of visibility over data usage by VPN providers. Therefore, you can’t tell what the provider does with your data. |
| It helps and manages bandwidth throttling. | It is not a great option when you have a scalable business. |
| You are shielded against DDoS and MITM attacks on public Wi-Fi. | It can create complexity in zero-trust access environments. |
| It is readily available, and one can connect and start using it even for individual users. | |
| It encrypts user traffic for added security. |
4 Best VPN Alternatives For Business
Though a VPN works great, if you have a scalable business or deal with sensitive information, you need VPN alternatives. Therefore, let us understand some of the best VPN replacements or VPN alternatives for your business-
1. Proxy Server
A proxy server works similarly to a VPN and is a great VPN alternative. It basically acts as a middleman between your device and the internet, like a getaway. Users need to activate the proxy server in their browser, which will reroute the traffic, defending their IP address.
The only difference between a proxy server and a VPN is that a proxy server does not encrypt traffic. Therefore, a user can browse without revealing their IP address. However, using a free proxy server is risky due to the insecure server network, which is easily hackable.
2. SSH Tunnel
Another great alternative to VPN is SSH tunnelling. You can use it by quickly downloading an SSH client and connecting to a remote device with an SSH server. That will create an encrypted tunnel to transfer data safely.
3. Software-Defined WAN
Software-defined WAN is a cloud-based service which efficiently routes and secures traffic SD WAN-defined applications across the world worldwide network. So businesses can manage and secure their data as it moves around using the cloud.
It tracks and ensures everything runs smoothly. It provides excellent bandwidth for stable connection and optimised performance, but you need a compatible device that blends with it.
4. Secure Access Service Edge
Secure Access Service Edge is a modern framework which was introduced in 2019 by Gartner. It is formed by the combination of network and different security technologies like a secure web gateway,zero-trust network access, single unified cloud solution and next-generation firewall.
It is a personal favourite of several business infrastructures due to set strict access rules across multiple locations. It is a super solution that tracks and controls who accesses what, both on-site and on the cloud.
Conclusion
Choose your best VPN alternative for a safer and better connection between your business infrastructure and the internet. A good VPN alternative will help your business with speed, performance privacy and bypass webpage blocks.
In fact, Zero Trust Network Access is a popular VPN alternative for businesses today. This security model follows a “Never Trust, Always Verify” approach and can either replace VPNs entirely or be used in conjunction with them by leveraging existing VPN infrastructure.
