1 – Tighter Security
The most concerning security flaw with VPNs is the fact that once a remote user is authenticated he or
she is considered trusted and is granted excessive access to network resources. Generally, VPN access
is overly permissive, granting remote workers access to more of the network than is required to complete
their tasks. As a result, network resources are unnecessarily visible, overly vulnerable, and open to
attack.
A software-defined perimeter replaces this flawed VPN site-centric security approach with an identity-
based approach that enforces a customized policy for each user device. There are no trusted zones and
an IT administrator must grant users permission to access specific applications. All other network
resources that are unauthorized to a specific user are simply invisible.
Some SDP solutions also provide continuous authentication and verification of the user and/or device at
the packet level using identity-based networking technology. Finally, all network traffic is logged for audit
and investigation.
2 – Better End User Experience
Anyone that has used VPNs is familiar with the notoriously slow and unreliable performance. And if one
is on the job and involved with multiple applications in different locations, the frustration of repeatedly
connecting and disconnecting to remote applications is not an uncommon experience.
With SDPs, the user experience is dramatically different. A global network of points-of-presence (PoPs)
provides a network backbone that reduces latency and optimizes the routing of data. Therefore, instead
of connecting to a specific site, a remote user connects to the nearest local PoP, which provides better
performance and quality of service from anywhere in the world.
The single connection to the overlay network provides access to all the applications needed, regardless
of their location.
3 – Reduced Management and Administration
Any enterprise that has expanded a single data center into multiple cloud deployments, has experienced
how VPN management balloons in complexity, with IT administrators required to configure and
synchronize VPN and firewall policies across multiple locations.
SDPs, on the other hand, offer a much simpler management and administration than any number of data
centers and cloud deployments. Administrators can onboard each network resource to an SDP platform
once and manage all policies centrally in the cloud, avoiding the need to configure and sync across
different locations. There is little to setup or maintain and upgrade in the data center or VPC, since all
logic and security definitions are done in the SDP cloud platform.
4 – Better Scalability
VPN infrastructure is installed to support tens of thousands of user sessions. However, this equipment is
primarily in place at very large organizations and is costly to purchase and manage at scale. For many
companies, VPNs are installed and expanded as demand requires. As the business grows and adds
additional VPN connectivity to provide support for business partners and customers, both the
management complexity and costs rise significantly.