5 Reasons to Ditch Old VPN Methods and Start Using Harmony SASE
Cisco recently announced that it will discontinue updates and support for AnyConnect clients as of March 31, 2024. Customers using Cisco AnyConnect will unfortunately remain at risk if new vulnerabilities are discovered.
To access your systems remotely and secure these connections, we have a different solution instead of the classic VPN connections.
You have the opportunity to get rid of old VPN dependencies and manage all your connections and remote access from the cloud and a single portal with the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution that keeps up with the global, hybrid working age.
Let’s examine together the 5 items we have prepared for you to move away from legacy VPN solutions and start using Harmony SASE.
- Legacy VPN Less Secure
A legacy VPN does only one thing: it connects remote employees to the company network. The problem is that most employees have access to the entire network. Employees don’t need access to many applications or data within the organization. But VPNs usually give people broad access to the network, and with legacy technology it’s hard to segment by application.
Let’s compare this situation with SASE. Instead of broad access to the corporate network, SASE gives employees access to only the applications they need.
This capability of SASE minimizes data breach threats by preventing untrusted employees from accessing data they shouldn’t have access to. In addition, in the event that threat actors obtain the login credentials of employees, access to the network will be accessed by default, reducing horizontal movement attempts on the network.
- Efficient Use of Network Traffic
Most companies have several VPN locations across the country or the world that need to serve their entire workforce. When you have too many users trying to access the VPN at the same time, all these connection requests get jammed in the narrow data stream at the same time. The result is slow VPN connections.
With SASE, you can enable your employees to connect to your assets anywhere in the world. So not everyone is trying to access the same limited VPN resources.
- Network Performance: The Trombone Effect
In addition to the data congestion mentioned in the previous point, your connections have to pass through many nodes until they reach the VPN point. For example, your company is in New York and London. This might work for employees in Europe. But what about the team in Ankara accessing the AWS resource?
They need to connect from Ankara to their company location via VPN, then their traffic has to go back to Ankara and finally connect to AWS. There are many nodes in what we are talking about. This means that the connection slows down.
But wouldn’t it be better if this connection point was closer? Connections made with SASE allow you to access the source directly at the nearest hop point. Thus, there is no slowdown in traffic.
- Unmanageable Device Support
A device’s VPN client either has access to the network or it does not. Allowing third-party products to access the network with unlimited authorization is a big mistake. These are all potential security threats and they all connect to your network.
This is where SASE stands apart. Instead of giving untrusted devices a network connection, it gives them agentless access to applications through the web portal. Even if they are hacked or have their credentials stolen, hackers will only access one app, making it less likely that the vulnerabilities of third-party software will translate into a data breach.
- Reduced Total Cost
Since some products in data centers have Cloud capability, there may not be a new device to replace it. However, this is not the case with a VPN. These devices are less secure, which can significantly impact an organization’s operations due to data breaches and ransomware attacks. Poor network performance leads to employee complaints and decreased productivity. This is a loss for the organization.
Do you think that your budget cannot cover the costs you will face in the future? Then you can reduce your future costs by incurring a cost now.
The average lifespan of a VPN device is between 3 and 5 years. If you experience unexpected or miscalculated growth during this time, you may face extra costs to upgrade these devices. In addition to upgrading this device, there will be extra costs such as maintenance, training, installation.
The alternative to this problem is the SASE solution, which is a cloud-based solution that allows you to manage your entire network with a single agent, where you can easily manage your access and securely restrict access.
