Question

A business is experiencing tremendous growth and needs to either open another branch office on the west side of town or allow their auditors and loan-processing staff to work from home. He asks you to compare the security requirements of opening a new branch office versus implementing a VPN solution (using employees' home broadband Internet connections) for work-at-home employees. As part of your comparison, identify the cost associated with these security requirements. What factors do those costs depend on? Expansion of 10 users, which solution do you recommend?

Answer 1

A new branch office will at the least require physical security of the information assets that will reside at that location. Since the main branch already has invested physical security there is no need to reinvest. A VPN solution using SSL, encryption coupled with company owned laptops would provide the necessary security to secure information assets.

Factors that would need to be considered:
Cost of broadband
Cost of VPN connection licenses
Cost of hardware to support VPN access
Administrative support cost
Cost leasing corporate laptops for employees
Cost of backup solution to backup laptops to main servers
Cost of backup storage capacity

Recommendation:
I would recommend the VPN solution. This is the most flexible option as it allows access from virtually anywhere in the world. Employees will not be restricted one area; cuts down on commuting time and reduces facility cost which the company would incur if the employees were in an actual office.