A VPN (virtual private network) creates an encrypted tunnel for your internet traffic. Business VPNs and consumer VPNs solve different problems, though, and mixing them up can leave you with a false sense of security.
VPN is one of those terms everyone has heard and most people think they understand. Here is what a VPN does, where it helps your business, and where it doesn't do what people assume.
Virtual Private Network. The name describes it well: a connection that behaves like a private, direct line even though it runs over the public internet.
Say you need to get a confidential document to a colleague across town. You could mail it and hope nobody opens it, or you could drive it over yourself in a locked car. A VPN is the locked car. Your data travels through an encrypted tunnel that outsiders can't read, even if they can see traffic moving.
Without a VPN, data sent over public or untrusted networks (coffee shop Wi-Fi, hotel internet, a client's guest network) can potentially be intercepted. With a VPN, that traffic is encrypted between your device and the VPN server or your office network. Once it leaves the VPN and heads to a website, it relies on that site's own encryption.
This distinction matters, and many people don't know it exists.
Consumer VPNs are sold mainly as privacy tools. They route your traffic through the provider's servers, hiding your IP address from websites and advertisers, and they add encryption that helps on public Wi-Fi. They do not give you access to your company's internal systems, and they aren't designed to support the access controls and logging that frameworks like HIPAA, PCI DSS or CMMC expect.
Business VPNs connect a remote employee's device to the company's private network as if they were sitting in the office. That is what lets a remote worker reach internal file servers, line-of-business applications, EHR systems and other resources that aren't exposed to the internet. The connection is encrypted, users are authenticated, and IT controls who can reach what.
A staff member working from home on a personal VPN subscription is not securely connected to your office network. If your remote access plan is "everyone has their own VPN app," that's a gap worth closing.
A business VPN is one layer in a broader remote access setup. It is especially useful for:
A VPN encrypts traffic in transit. It does not:
Many businesses are also supplementing, and in some cases replacing, traditional VPNs with Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), which checks who can reach each specific application rather than opening up the whole network. Our Zero Trust security model article explains the idea, and remote work security: what your business needs covers the wider picture.
NerdSquad Managed IT Services is a Managed Service Provider (MSP). We set up and manage business VPNs as part of managed IT services, paired with MFA and endpoint protection to cover the gaps a VPN alone leaves open. For clients in healthcare and financial services, we configure remote access to support the technical safeguards their compliance framework calls for, so the setup holds up to scrutiny rather than simply existing.
Already a client? Call (239) 465-0079 or submit a ticket. If something is down, call so we can start right away.
Not a client yet? NerdSquad Managed IT Services is a Managed Service Provider (MSP) based in Naples, Florida. We support businesses onsite across Southwest Florida and remotely nationwide. Book a discovery call or call (239) 465-0079.