People have taken up work from home culture for a long time. It is a beneficial thing to do because people can maintain their work-life balance and also there’s reduced traffic and it has been recorded that the productivity of work is great. Besides the given perks, with the global pandemic affecting commute and gathering, the number has just immensely increased. Most applications or work projects are accessible from your home networks, but not all of them. Some applications have certain norms and getting into them is difficult.
For people who work from home, they either work through terminal services or take the help of third-party applications to do so. Often businesses look for a likely solution, but proceeding with cloud apps is always not secure. Also, telecommuting is not a garden of roses. To work this out, business organizations have come forward with a Remote Access Solution. The significance of such ideas is to help the employees connect remotely when they are working from home and the business shall continue without work loss.
VPNs or Virtual Private Networks have been used over the years as a solution to access internal networks remotely. However, these days VDI or Virtual Desktop Infrastructures, a new form of virtualization has come into action. VPNs have been the primary option for remote work chosen by many organizations and now they also have the option for VDIs.
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Virtual Private Network (VPN)
What is a VPN or Virtual Private Network?
A VPN or Virtual Private Network is meant to help users create a secure connection to a different network over the internet. VPN when created, was indigenously meant for business or office work which would allow business network access from home or any remote place with the internet. In simple words, a VPN connects your laptop, PC, or mobile devices to another computer network and allows you to continue your work remotely, even if you are in a different country. As mention VPN was originally developed for business purposes, now it is used for a lot many different works like bypassing regional networks, streaming media, protecting yourself against unsecured Wi-Fi connections, gaining anonymity, and a lot more to list.
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How does a Virtual Private Network Work?
When you connect your device to a VPN, it is like your device is on the same local area network as that of the VPN. Since your computer acts as if it is on the same network, you will be able to securely send your data or share your resources over the network and continue to work from anywhere around the world. Adding to the security, you can also access the VPN’s internet connection which keeps your work safe when you are using a public Wi-Fi for your work.
When do you need a Virtual Private Network?
Looking into the work you are doing which may involve security, inaccessibility of the work system, public Wi-Fi for official work, bandwidth and other internet issues, or bypass geoblocking, you might choose to use a VPN to execute your work peacefully.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
What is a VDI or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure?
VDI or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure allows you to host various desktop environments on a single server and this desktop virtualization runs within Virtual Machines (or VMs) and can be accessed by various clients over a network. The clients may be other desktops, laptops, or mobile devices like tablets.
How does a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Work?
Virtual Desktops are a part of the virtual machine on a definite server, which have a definite operating system, mainly Microsoft. Clients can request a connection to the desktop and access everything on the desktop for the desired work.
Also Read: A Comparative Analysis Of VPN And VPS
When do you need a VDI?
VDIs are being used widely across industries. Virtual Desktop Infrastructures are useful when you are working remotely or have mobile employees, kiosk workers, field workers, medical professionals, teachers, and other related areas.
VDI or VPN?
Most offices use Windows Operating System for their work, be it a system at the work location or at a remote location. The question arises what is to be used in such a case, a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure or Virtual Private Network to serve the work. Here the question arises, VDI or VPN? Let us check in the terms of the following:
Connection: Considering the secure connection, VPN creates a secure connection with the process of tunneling between your device and the network you are connecting to. Sometimes, in such a case, firewalls restrict the VPN connection. While in case of a VDI, a pre-configured desktop is on the main server through which, the VDI provides a connection with all the desktops and applications.
Cost: VPN offers a low cost on the connection as it does require any hardware to be installed for the connection. Whereas in the case of a VDI, there is a requirement of software to host the VDI system and hence becomes an expensive option.
Maintenance: A VPN can be managed all through the existing hardware and requires least management or maintenance. While A VDI setup requires various Virtual machines for functioning and hence calling in more maintenance.
Speed: VDI provides a better user experience than that of a VPN. A user working with VDI systems experiences a faster environment due to the resource sharing and default configurations. VPN, on the other hand, is completely dependent on the internet connection and also the hardware. Also, taking into the security of data in a VPN, the encryption and decryption of data also consume more time comparatively.
Security: We already learned that the data being sent on a VPN connection is encrypted which clearly implies better security. But also, the flow of data to the correct user is taken care of. In VDI, other than restricting the data flow, nothing else can be managed in terms of security.
Hardware: In terms of data processing, everything occurs in the server of the VPN and the user accessing the VPN has nothing to worry about the hardware he/she is using. While a VDI connection, the hardware being used is highly necessary.
Data Storage: In a VPN connection there is no link between the data and the endpoint as VPN used a secure system to store all the data while in case of a VDI, data is directly paved towards the endpoint.
Expertise: Connecting a VDI connection doesn’t require the help of any IT expertise, it is clearly easy. While in case you are using a VPN connection, you need to have the background knowledge.
Although VDIs are a great help to access quick applications, a lot many issues might come in the way of smooth work. While VPNs work on a decentralized approach, they can open up irrelevant paths into the work. Just like every other tech you come across, there is no definite answer to a perfect solution for the work from home setup. However, it is completely up to the businesses or offices, to go through the needs, requirements, accessibilities, norms, cost, etc. before choosing between the remote working options.
About Ankita Mohanty
Ankita Mohanty is a Software Engineer who has the passion for content creation, tech and travel. She believes in that there's nothing in this world that's unachievable when you work hard for it.