Corporate VPN era is coming to an end as Cloudflare Access rises

2 min. read

Published on February 15, 2018

published on February 15, 2018

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Larger companies usually have some of their resources available only via their internal network or intranet. One of the most common ways to gain access to such data from outside of the company is a VPN.

On the other hand, VPNs are not the perfect solution these days, and this is probably the reason for which large companies such as Amazon and Google are leaving them behind.

Cloudflare is planning to do the same thing and instead to use its new Access service.

The main idea behind VPNs

The primary target of a VPN is that instead of sending the network traffic straight to the website or service that you are trying to contact, you will send it to a trusted server. The server will send the packets to the service or website, and after that, it will receive the responses and send them back to you.

In other words, VPNs have the ability to limit the exposure of your personal and sensitive information. But their downsides include the fact that they can significantly slow down traffic and their idea of securing data became out of date.

Google and Amazon found new solutions for security

Google is the pioneer for a new way of keeping things secure via authentication. Amazon did something similar, and their systems are now available for their administrators to use if your service is hosted on the cloud platforms.

Cloudflare’s Access service

Access is Cloudflare’s new service that is set to work with identity and authentication companies including Google Auth, Okta and more. They plan to provide access control and encryption across various platforms. According to Cloudflare, traffic will not be slowed down during the process.

Overall, Cloudflare will be doing the main thing that a VPN does which involves inspecting certificates and establishing a chain of trust for packets in a way that will also allow companies to leave their data on the cloud instead of leaving it on their internal servers.

You can try Access for free for a single employee, and you can find out more details on the service on Cloudflare’s Access official website.

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Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.