IT professionals embrace VPN technologies

A recent report on the use of VPNs indicates that an overwhelming number of businesses have embraced some form of the technology.

This year, 69% of the 149 IT professionals surveyed by IT consultants International Network Services (INS) said they have already implemented an in-house VPN, with 24% saying they use a VPN service of some sort. Only 4% have no VPN or plans for one at this time.

The survey was conducted in February and March of this year, and INS published it alongside results from its 2001 survey. That year, only 41% of respondents had built their own VPN and 17% were buying a VPN service.

For the first time the survey asked how many used Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) remote access gear, and it came in a strong second to IPSec. Of those surveyed, 56% say they are planning or have implemented SSL remote access as compared to 83% either planning or already implementing IPSec gear. SSL beat out Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol and Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, both of which preceded IPSec.

PPTP, which comes free in Windows clients and servers, took a 17% decline since the 2001 survey, perhaps affected directly by use of SSL gear that uses Web browsers as a client, making it nearly ubiquitous.

Less than half of those who responded to the survey were dissatisfied with their VPN gear, but the report says there is room to improve. Less than a quarter of those surveyed rated themselves as very satisfied with the equipment, which means customers might be attracted to equipment with more features and demonstrably better quality, the survey says.