2 Cases of VPN Adoption for a Private Company

Case 1 >> Company M, which has 15 employees in the headquarters in HCMC and 3 in the Chinese branch. At the head office, the existing database-based raw material management program was being used. By introducing a VPN, the branch office in China could use the same program in HCMC head office without a separate program development cost.

• Reasons for adopting VPN: In order to maintain security in the Chinese branch in a small company and to access the headquarters’ raw material management database via the Internet, the initial investment cost was too burdensome to develop a new program instead of using the existing program.
• Reduced cost by adopting VPN: It was able to build a VPN even though the company installed VPN equipment in the headquarters and in China respectively, and both were using the floating IP Internet. With only an inexpensive monthly maintenance fee, it is now possible to safely use the company’s raw material management program in China using a VPN without a manager.

–  Other advantages of adopting a VPN

a. As the HCMC headquarters and the Chinese branch can share files with each other, the work efficiency between China and Vietnam has been improved.

b. Not only at the branch office, but also business trip workers and home workers can access the headquarters network through the program VPN connection, and they can access the company from anywhere with the Internet to perform work.

Case 2 >> Company G with 30 employees at the headquarters in HCMC, 15 at the Hong Kong branch, 4 dispatched workers at the Indonesian factory, 4 office workers at the Dong Nai factory, and 1 local sales representative in the US. Each branch office or factory had access to the head office’s file server to update and share files in a certain format. With the introduction of VPN, this file sharing has become possible, and a three-way conference call in HCMC, Hong Kong and Indonesia has been made possible through the Internet. Currently, they are developing a groupware program that can be used in all offices at low cost, thanks to the internal network where the headquarters and each branch are securely connected via VPN.

• Reasons for implementing VPN: Initially, they tried to share files through an FTP server, but they introduced a VPN for reasons such as the company’s exposure to important data and the hassle of using the FTP server. (For reference, FTP is too vulnerable to security. Company’s important data should never be exchanged through FTP). In addition, the company was planning to adopt its own program rather than file sharing in the future. It is possible to develop groupware at low cost as it could reduce the development cost for security management.

• Reduced cost by adopting VPN: VPN equipment was installed at headquarters in HCMC and Indonesia, Hong Kong and factory in Dong Nai. US local sales people was able to access HCMC and each branch through the program VPN connection. VPN can use the existing inexpensive Internet line in a floating IP environment even for multiple site VPN connections, allowing file sharing between multiple regions without the additional cost for corporate Internet leased lines in a fixed IP environment.