COVID-19 Exposes the Shortcomings of Over-Reliance on VPNs

VPN vs SASE in the Age of Remote Work

Shortcomings of over-reliance on VPNs became impossible to ignore as the global workforce shifted almost overnight to remote operations. While Virtual Private Networks were once the gold standard, the sudden stress test of a distributed perimeter revealed significant cracks in legacy infrastructure.

In the traditional networking model, remote users were expected to “tunnel” back into a central data centre to access applications. However, the shortcomings of over-reliance on VPNs are most evident in the resulting latency and “tromboning” of traffic. This model was never designed to support entire organisations working outside the office simultaneously, leading to performance bottlenecks that hindered productivity.

Moving Beyond the Limitations of Legacy Tunnels

Understanding the shortcomings of over-reliance on VPNs requires looking at the security implications as well. Legacy VPNs often grant broad access to the internal network once a user is authenticated. This is why Orro advocates for a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework, which treats identity—not location—as the new perimeter.

The Secure Client to Cloud Advantage

As we transition into a permanent hybrid work model, addressing the shortcomings of over-reliance on VPNs means adopting a “Secure Client to Cloud” approach. This ensures that traffic is routed directly to where it is needed—whether that is a SaaS application or the public cloud—without the unnecessary detour through a central office. As noted by Gartner, this convergence of networking and security is no longer optional for the modern enterprise.