Why do I need to pay for a VPN? What's the point?

Author: Eric Vasbinder

Overview and Analogy

When you move Vista into Viewpoint's cloud, you are taking the Vista database and placing it in a different network, completely separate from your own. Under normal circumstances, this would prevent any applications still hosted in your on-premise environment that talk directly to the Vista database from doing so once your move to the cloud has taken place.

Think of it this way: our network in the cloud is a castle and your network in your offices is another castle. They are separated by a large 5000 foot ravine. Imagine a large set of books in your castle, used to store your kingdom's financial ledger. Anyone who has the permission to view the ledger can do so easily when the books are in your castle, your network; they just walk down the hall. But, when those books are moved to our castle, anyone who needs to view the data cannot get to the data by walking down the hall; they need to somehow get to our castle across the ravine. A few people already have a special bridge built across the ravine, so they can easily get to the data. However, the bridge used by these Vista Rich Clients, called Vista Remote Link (VRL), cannot be used by anything else. As such, we need a big bridge, usable by everyone who has the permission from your castle network to walk across to ours. That's the VPN.

A TLS Database Endpoint (TLS VPN) or our older IPSEC VPN will bridge the gap between two completely separate networks that might be thousands of miles away, allowing applications that cannot speak over VRL to still be able to see the Vista database when it's moved to our cloud.

Anything that needs to “talk” to the Vista database directly needs to have a means to connect to that database; a VPN is the means to accomplish this task.

Integration Examples

Here are the items that a VPN covers:

• • SQL Server Management studio access to customize stored procedures, views, triggers, etc.

  • PowerBI integration to on-premise PowerBI

  • Integration to on-premise home-built systems

  • Integration to TTR and other local tax rate calculation systems

  • Crystal Reports Designer access (as mentioned)

  • GSS (as mentioned)

  • Direct Microsoft Excel access to Vista data

  • Direct access to SQL data by consultants and third parties who need to assist with Vista customizations

  • Many, Many more

Most customers have an average of 3-5 things that talk to Vista directly over a VPN. This direct access can be provided via the TLS Database Endpoint (TLS VPN) or the older IPSEC VPN tunnel option.

The following is a quick summary of each, along with links to more details.

TLS Database Endpoint (TLS VPN)

The following are the pros and cons of this method:

• • Pros

    • Can be stood up rapidly

    • No requirement for specific VPN hardware

  • Cons

    • Does NOT support mounting the pickup directory over SMB for file imports

    • Requires Static IP for whitelisting

    • Additional monthly cost due to Azure overhead costs

      • We can’t give it away as we have costs to absorb for this capability, both in terms of third-party licensing costs and our own network management costs.

IPSEC VPN

The following are the pros and cons of this method:

• Pros

  • Supports mounting of the pickup directory to the Viewpoint Repository via SMB

    • This mounting is required for automated server to server imports: Setting up Automatic Imports into Vista

• Cons

  • More complex and time-consuming to set up for customer

  • Additional monthly cost due to Azure overhead costs

    • We can’t give it away as we have costs to absorb for this capability, both in terms of third-party licensing costs and our own network management costs.

  • Specific Azure-supported VPN hardware is required: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-about-vpn-devices

VPNs pay significant dividends to almost every customer and allow us to preserve the customization for which Vista is well-known.

Please NOTE: One VPN SKU allows for connectivity with multiple TLS Database Endpoint (TLS VPN) or IPSEC VPN endpoints to and from one, SINGLE environment in our cloud. If you have a test environment as well, you'll need another, separate VPN SKU for that test environment.