Many things have changed since the office lost its significance as the primary workplace to deliver your job duties. Work From Home (WFH), Work From Anywhere (WFA), and workation became synonymous with working on-premise in the company HQ.
However, a massive shift to remote work results in increased traffic of users trying to access the on-site company resources through other channels than usual. Unsurprisingly, the overload crams up the corporate network, eventually affecting its performance.
But is it possible to make such a transition smooth and painless for the IT managers and the rest of the organization?
First, let’s dig into the problem — how does the increased user traffic affect the corporate network?
Previously, users connected to the company HQ mainly centrally, with only a small part of incoming connection requests from those working remotely - business trips, sick leave, urgent deadlines - you name it. Therefore, network access via VPN wasn’t a challenge as the organizational legacy perimeter was intentionally designed for such a setup.
With the global pandemic, quickly scaling companies with limited local employee resources and slow legacy infrastructure upgrades reversed everything upside down. A remote workforce means a few times higher number of organizational members simultaneously knocking on the same door to be let in to access internal data assets and applications.
Massive user traffic streams overcrowd network security systems as more requests must be filtered and authorized while others wait in line. This situation creates a poor user experience that impacts productivity.
However, there must be ways to streamline the user traffic for better performance, so what are they?
Insufficient infrastructure capacity can improve with heavy investments in hardware that would support increased traffic flow. Legacy perimeter upgrades with more outdated solutions are a short-term solution, which, by the way, also takes plenty of time to be installed.
The good thing is, it doesn’t have to be so complicated.
Instead of stacking up more physical equipment somewhere on-premises, it’s possible to set up a VPN solution so it’s utilized more efficiently. The split tunneling feature available on a properly configured business VPN allows the distribution of incoming connection streams and the offload of unnecessary user traffic requests.
A running VPN client transmits all user traffic through a secure VPN tunnel where information gets encrypted. In a basic setup, all undistributed user traffic as a streamline travels straight to the company network. The further redirection to the ultimate connection destinations proceeds as soon as the users access the organizational network.
It’s great if there’s a need to inspect and monitor all incoming traffic. On the other hand, it creates more work for the systems, resulting in more jammed performance or expensive injections to equipment expansion.
However, it’s not critical to have 100% of data encrypted the entire time, as not all of it is highly sensitive. Therefore, there’s no point in overdoing something that doesn’t increase the efficiency and effectiveness of company processes.
NordLayer business VPN with enabled site-to-site or IP allowlisting configurations does the traffic distribution before overflooding the company network while maintaining necessary security levels:
Optimizing traffic flow with split tunneling decreases the impact of remote workers trying to connect all at once. By routing part of the traffic directly to the public network, not all user endpoint connections are encrypted. Thus, the impact on performance is lower.
Business VPN with site-to-site connection or IP allowlisting configuration enables traffic reduction via split tunnels. It offloads organizational members’ access requests from HQ servers and data centers. Less waiting time due to improved network performance ensures a smoother user experience and minimal infrastructure impact on tasks’ delivery on time.
Undoubtedly, deploying a well-fitted cloud-native solution into your existing infrastructure saves company resources — time, money, and people. Easy implementation, launch, and distribution of the tool considerably impact handling unexpected corporate-level issues like overcrowded HQ network.
NordLayer’s business VPN requires simple configuration steps to apply split tunneling. User traffic optimization is only possible if the site-to-site connection is configured with the service. Alternatively, IP allowlisting resources accessible via NordLayer also enables the feature.
You can solve overcrowded company network issues quickly and with ease — set up NordLayer client effortlessly and enjoy the benefits of hardware-free network traffic control. Reach out to our team and pick the most suitable solution for your business network optimization.
Agnė Srėbaliūtė
Senior Creative Copywriter
Agne is a writer with over 15 years of experience in PR, SEO, and creative writing. With a love for playing with words and meanings, she creates unique content. Introverted and often lost in thought, Agne balances her passion for the tech world with hiking adventures across various countries. She appreciates the IT field for its endless learning opportunities.
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