These days, business trips are nothing new to companies. Whether it’s closing a deal or looking for new markets, not everything can be achieved via emails and therefore a personal touch is needed. But constant travel can disturb the natural workflow. How? Well every country has different internet access regulations. Some are pretty straight forward and some are just plain crazy, and this is where a VPN comes in handy.

What is a VPN?

For those who are hearing this term for the first time, a VPN is basically a software tool that helps you operate under a different IP address. An IP address determines from what geographical place you are connecting to the internet, by choosing a different IP address you can access data that may be inaccessible to your current location. But a VPN does not only this, it also works as a data loss prevention software tool that creates a secure connection for you to browse anonymously and ensures web protection.

Why is a VPN needed for business travel?

A business VPN can help you in numerous ways to make your remote work experience trouble-free.These are just a few things that you can benefit from when using a VPN for business trips:

Security

Being out of the office means data vulnerability. Using public wifi is sometimes inevitable, when travelling whether its a coffee shop or hotel room, public wifi’s are usually very poorly secured and connecting to one without the right security tools can lead to data breaches. Having a VPN can save you a lot of trouble, it secures your internet connection with encrypted protocols and hides your identity on the web. If you deal with sensitive business data (private emails, accounts or contracts) and travel often then a business VPN is your best chance at securing your data from third parties.

Intranet

Some businesses use intranet — a private network, accessible only to an organization’s staff where private company information is stored. Usually, the intranet is accessible when using your office IP address. This causes problems when staff members go on business trips but still have to access secured documents, but this is where a VPN comes in handy. A business who is using a VPN can whitelist the IP addresses that allow intranet access, meaning that if you are on a business trip, you can use a VPN to choose the required IP address for intranet use. With a VPN you can access these internal documents that are otherwise inaccessible while using a different wifi or IP than your offices.

Website accessibility

Some countries have severe internet website blocks, meaning that reaching these websites is prohibited and not possible while you are operating under the country’s IP. In China particularly, popular social media handles like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are unreachable,. Bummer, right? But by choosing a VPN server such as the USA ,where internet access is open, you will be able to browse through any of your needed web pages without any difficulties. If you are worried about the legal issues of using a VPN in this situation take a look at this article.

What else you need to know

Choosing the correct VPN for your business can be difficult, keeping in mind how many different VPN providers there are, but here are a few things you should be looking for in a VPN and some recommendations:

Make sure you pick a VPN that has business plan, this way, you can save money, have multiple accounts and usually one billing. Also, business VPNs offer more business relevant features and management tools. Another thing to keep in mind is safety and credibility, search for a VPN that has strong no log policies is trustworthy and is admired by tech specialist. Ultimately, I would recommend choosing one of these providers: