Summary: A VPN enables companies to securely link multiple sites and provides employees with safe access to internal resources.
If your business has multiple locations, you probably want them all to stay connected, right? You need information to flow smoothly between sites, without any hiccups. But it’s not like you can achieve that by just plugging in a few cables. It doesn’t work like that.
What you need is to set up—that is, digitally build—a robust and secure network that can connect multiple offices without ever putting your company’s data at risk. That’s where a VPN enters the scene. Let’s show you how you can use it to create a secure connection between your sites.
It doesn’t matter if your company connects just two offices or a dozen—once you’ve got one network linking multiple locations, someone might be looking for a way to get into one site and use it as a gateway to others.
That is, if your connection isn’t properly secured, cybercriminals could potentially break into your internal systems from any of the connected sites. Even if not, they might try to intercept sensitive data as it moves between locations. Either way, it could lead to stolen customer information, leaked intellectual property, or exposed communication like internal emails.
And that’s not all. A weak connection between company offices can open the door for malware or ransomware to spread. Just one compromised location can put your entire network at risk. That kind of breach can bring all your operations to a halt and cost you a lot of time and money.
Last but not least, there’s compliance. As you know, many industries have strict data privacy rules—like GDPR, HIPAA, and many others. So, if your office-to-office communication isn’t well protected, you could end up not being compliant with the regulations, which can lead to fines, legal issues, or damage to your reputation.
Most people think of a VPN—short for Virtual Private Network—as software that hides their device’s IP address and keeps their internet activity private. And that’s true—but VPNs can do more than that. For example, employees can use them to connect securely to their company’s internal network.
So, how does it work from the user’s perspective? This is done using a VPN client—an application that allows your device to connect securely to a VPN server. But instead of connecting to a public or random server, you’re connecting to your company’s own virtual private network.
Of course, that VPN server isn’t open to just anyone. The company must first give you access rights or configure your account to allow VPN access. Then, each time you try to log in, you’re verified, usually through authentication methods such as passwords, TOTP (time-based one-time password) codes, or magic links.
Once you’re authenticated, the VPN client and the company’s server create an encrypted tunnel between your device and the internal network. This allows you to safely access files, apps, and other internal systems—just as if you were in the office, connected to the company Wi-Fi.
We’d go as far as to say that once a business grows beyond a single headquarters, setting up office-to-office VPN connectivity isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential. Why? Because it brings so many benefits to how teams work and collaborate that it becomes an operational necessity.
Here are a few key advantages of connecting your offices through a VPN:
Decided to connect multiple offices with a VPN? Great! Now, the next step is figuring out how to set it up. There are two main options to consider: site-to-site VPN and remote access VPN.
Each of those meets different needs and works in different ways depending on your company’s size, structure, and how your teams connect to resources. So, the setup and management will look different based on which route you take. Because of that, it’s worth taking a little time to learn about both before making a decision. Here’s what you need to know.
Like its name suggests, Site-to-Site VPN is about connecting entire office networks that are in different physical locations.
The way it works is by using routers or firewalls at each office, which are set up as VPN gateways. These VPN gateways encrypt and decrypt data as it travels between offices. So, data is technically moving over the public internet, but it goes through a secure tunnel from start to finish, which keeps it protected while in transit.
Once configured, these site-to-site VPN tunnels are either always active or automatically turned on when needed. As a result, devices at each location can see and access each other’s resources as if they’re on the same local network—even though they’re actually miles apart.
Remote access VPN allows individual users to connect to your company’s private network from any location.
So, unlike a site-to-site VPN, which connects multiple office networks together, here each employee’s device uses a VPN client to log in and create an encrypted connection to the company’s VPN server. Once that connection is established, the user gains access to the company’s digital resources. However, administrators can—at any point—control exactly what the user can see and do by using access controls, network segmentation, firewalls, and other security tools.
As the name implies, this setup is best suited for remote work, where employees are spread out around the world but still need secure access to the same company systems, data, and tools to do their jobs effectively. This setup can also be used to connect employees from different offices, treating each office as a remote site.
Setting up a secure connection between offices looks different for every company—after all, no two companies have the same number of offices, countries, devices, or systems. But there are a few key things every company should do when setting up this kind of connection, and they are:
As you’d expect from a truly advanced network access security platform, NordLayer brings the best of both worlds with a secure access service edge (SASE) solution that enables the creation of a hybrid setup combining site-to-site VPN and remote access VPN.
That’s right! With NordLayer, you can create an encrypted connection between your branch offices (Site-to-Site VPN) while also making it possible for individual users to securely connect to your company’s private network (Business VPN)—simultaneously, with advanced access controls for each VPN connection.
With such flexibility, along with features like Always On VPN and support for Zero Trust policies, NordLayer makes it easy to connect multiple offices without compromising your team’s workflows.
Maciej Sikora
Senior Copywriter
A man on a mission to engage audiences with creative wordplay, Maciej knows every complex idea can be broken down into simple words—and that’s his driving force. When he’s not writing, you’ll find him making music, taking a walk with his dog, or watching yet another movie.
Subscribe to our blog updates for in-depth perspectives on cybersecurity.
