Relevance of (SSL)VPN technology in cloud environment

Introduction

Laymen explanation

Consider that you are sales representative of a banking firm and you want to access company resource(using your laptop) while you are at customer place. For example, This can be needed to show demo to customer. Access should be secure and it should be as smooth as you are accessing in-premise(when you are at office). To meet this requirement, you basically needs a secure channel between your laptop and the office network. SSLVPN technology offers this functionality for you.

Technical explanation

SSLVPN is a kind of secure VPN technology, where SSL/TLS protocol is used to connect with SSLVPN box. SSLVPN device is deployed at entry point of network (similar to place where gateway stays).

Platform as a service (PaaS) and SSLVPN

Now consider that company wants to move their IT resources to cloud. So, it will create similar network in the cloud. This will need PaaS offering cloud service provider. Definitely, you would like to access office network in the same manner as you did earlier. To do this, company will use cloud version of SSLVPN technology. For a good example, Private cloud uses VPN technology.

Software as a service (SaaS) and SSLVPN

SaaS(cloud app) provider offers their service to end-user or firms (corporate). For example, greythr.com, microsoft outlook etc shares their SaaS service to multiple clients. In this case, single application/service is accessed and not the network. So, SSLVPN may not be needed and alternatively, application specific secure access will serve the purpose. This is the trend for SaaS application. Many such apps uses HTTPS for secure access. SSLVPN device is not applicable in this case. However, SSLVPN device can act as AAA device allowing cloud app authentication.

Reference

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24498689/azure-vpn-with-paas

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/virtual-network/

https://www.blueboxcloud.com/products/openstack-private-cloud/cloud-foundry