The Sustainable Network

Chapter 15. What Is the Network: How Is Telecommuting Enabled?

Are we there yet?

— Your kids

The productivity and environmental benefits of being able to work and connect to the sustainable network will only continue as long as we feel that the connection is reliable and secure. Businesses, governments, and organizations in the public sector will only connect if their resources and intellectual property can be protected. Let's face it, even if virtual meetings reduce commuting and traveling, they are only viable alternatives if they can be counted on to deliver the same privacy that could be achieved in meetings behind closed doors. And this is where virtual private network (VPN) technology comes in. VPNs have been a boon for creating the sustainable network this past decade because they create a secure network environment where it's possible to conduct private conversations and business without participants having to be in the same room.

Originally, a whole decade ago, enterprises could only rely on service providers to deploy classic private network technologies, such as point-to-point or circuit-switched lines, and achieve the level of security they needed to reliably connect their employees. Point-to-point leased lines required service providers to lay physical links between locations, or points, which extended the deployment times into weeks and made changes to the network very ...