Data Governance – Part 4: Scalable Remote Access Infrastructure

The world in which we live, and the way people work everyday has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Global businesses and governments have since explored new methods to effectively scale-up their remote access protocols, while at the same time manage costs and controls over the inherent security risks associated with remote connectivity into their information technology infrastructure assets. Remote workers typically use either a company-provided endpoint device (laptop) or a personal device connected from home networks via VPN to the corporate network. This infrastructure might not scale at the speeds by which the work-from-home movement has shifted. It is also this remote connectivity model that has been directly attributed to network intrusions affecting large multi-national firms and many others as reported over the years. The access technology in place today is supported by physical remote access and VPN servers placing remote worker endpoint devices directly onto corporate networks. This access technology is far less secure than many realize. The standard would provide a framework and set of characteristics which, when adopted, enable the secure and rapid scale-up of the infrastructure needed to support the remote work requirements and directly addresses the weaknesses of the current security model which has directly led to these network intrusions. This standard would present a set of requirements which, when followed, yield an operational IT environment which allows enterprises to rapidly scale up and down to meet the dynamic and unpredictable demands of employees needing to shift their work habits to a work-from-home (WFH) model, and continue to meet the enterprise security needs. This set of requirements is vendor-agnostic and does not prescribe specific tooling, rather general practices which once met, achieves the scalability and security requirements.