Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak began, VPN usage has skyrocketed globally, with ZDnet reporting that corporate VPN use has surged 33% since the beginning of the pandemic. But depending on the scenario for remote work, VPNs are not always the right approach, especially if users are not using IT-managed and hardened devices – which is increasingly common. In fact, for many companies, VPNs can mean higher risk, degraded user experience, and loss of productivity.
Which is why today we introduced Cameyo NoVPN, a new solution that empowers organizations to give their remote workers secure access to internally-hosted web apps without requiring a VPN. This enables organizations to provide their people secure access to Windows desktop and Intranet web apps from behind the corporate firewall without the cost and user-experience compromise of VPNs so that people can access business-critical applications from anywhere in the world just as productively as if they were in the office.
You might be wondering why VPNs – which organizations have been using for decades – aren’t the right approach when it comes to enabling mass remote work policies.
“When dealing with potentially compromised personal devices, VPNs essentially enable the computing version of COVID-19,” said Eyal Dotan, Co-Founder and CTO of Cameyo and author or multiple Internet security patents. “Just like one infected person coming into the office could infect everyone in that building, introducing even one person’s infected personal computer to the corporate network could end up infecting everything attached to the network. So creating a secure link between people’s homes and the corporate network actually introduces new security concerns during this massive increase in remote work when people are using personal devices that may be infected.”
Morey Haber of the Forbes Technology Council agrees:
“One security decision I’ve seen is allowing the installation of your organization’s virtual private network (VPN) software on an employee’s home computer for remote access. While some security professionals may think of this as an acceptable practice, this policy is high risk with an undesirable attack vector when permitting access into your environment.”
Cameyo’s NoVPN technology eliminates the need for VPNs altogether. Just as Cameyo’s virtual application delivery platform provides people with secure access to the full desktop version of their critical Windows applications from the browser, Cameyo NoVPN does the same for internally-hosted web apps that need to be accessed from behind the firewall. 
Cameyo NoVPN simply gives remote workers access to a browser behind the firewall, so they can easily access their company’s internally-hosted web apps via Chrome or any HTML5 browser, but with the added security of accessing those from behind the corporate firewall. NoVPN utilizes Cameyo’s Self-Hosted service, which can be installed in minutes on any Windows Server 2016 or 2019 without extra components or prerequisites. Once installed, the IT admin simply generates a NoVPN URL from their new server’s page in Cameyo’s cloud portal. Remote workers can then access the company’s web from this URL (or set a shortcut on their desktop), just as they would if they were within the corporate network. The result is a seamless user experience without connectivity or network performance issues which are common to VPNs.
With Cameyo NoVPN, organizations benefit from:
- Increased Security – By separating remote workers’ personal devices from the corporate network while still giving them access to the applications they need, Cameyo NoVPN eliminates the risk of people’s devices infecting the network.
- Improved Productivity – By eliminating the frustrations people experience with VPNs, Cameyo NoVPN enables remote workers to be far more productive without lag or disruptions to connectivity.
- Better User Experience – Cameyo NoVPN doesn’t require the user to install anything or change their behavior in any way, providing a seamless user experience.
Cameyo NoVPN is available immediately and is included in the platform’s monthly subscription fees. Cameyo NoVPN utilizes the Cameyo Self-Hosted service, enabling organizations to deliver web apps from behind their own firewall. Want to try it out for free? Start your free trial (no credit card required) here.