How-To Guide

How to Set Up a Secure VPN for Your Remote Team in India

With remote work now standard in Indian companies — especially in IT, consulting, and services — securing remote access is non-negotiable. This guide covers both traditional business VPN and the modern Zero Trust alternative, so you can choose the right approach for your team size and security needs.

Define Your Remote Access Requirements: Before buying anything, answer: How many remote users? What do they need to access (office servers, cloud apps, ERP, email only)? From what devices (company laptops, personal devices, phones)? From what locations (home in India, international travel)? If users only need access to cloud apps (M365, Zoho, AWS), a traditional VPN may be overkill — cloud SSO with MFA is often enough. If users need access to on-premise servers, a VPN or ZTNA is required.
- Map exactly what each role needs to access remotely
- Separate needs: "access email" vs "access file server" vs "access ERP"
- Consider whether BYOD (personal devices) are allowed
- Think about international access — some VPNs don't work well across country borders
Choose a Business VPN Solution: Business VPN options for Indian companies: Cisco AnyConnect (enterprise-grade, for 50+ users), FortiClient VPN (bundled with FortiGate firewall), Sophos SSL VPN (included with Sophos UTM), WireGuard/OpenVPN (self-hosted, for technical teams), or a managed SASE/ZTNA from Zscaler or Cloudflare Access. Avoid free VPNs or consumer VPNs (NordVPN, ExpressVPN) for business use — they route all traffic through foreign servers and create compliance issues.
- Never use consumer VPNs for business — they log and sell traffic data
- FortiGate or Sophos UTM bundles firewall + VPN for SMEs at good prices
- WireGuard is excellent for technical teams who can manage it
- For 5–20 users, consider hosted options to avoid managing VPN servers
Set Up and Configure Split Tunneling: Split tunneling routes only your office traffic through the VPN and lets internet traffic go directly — this improves speed and reduces load on your VPN server. Configure split tunneling so: office server IPs go through VPN, internet browsing goes direct, cloud apps (M365, Google, Zoom) go direct (they already have their own encryption). Avoid "full tunnel" VPN unless required by compliance, as it creates bottlenecks and degrades the user experience.
- Enable split tunneling for video calls (Zoom, Teams) — they're already encrypted
- Route only your internal server subnets (e.g. 192.168.1.0/24) through VPN
- Test VPN performance from actual user home locations before rollout
- Document the VPN server IP and gateway — users need this for setup
Enforce Security on Remote Devices: A VPN is only as secure as the devices connecting to it. Before granting VPN access, require: device health check (OS updated, antivirus active), endpoint security software installed, disk encryption enabled (BitLocker on Windows), and MFA for VPN login. Use Network Access Control (NAC) or your VPN's built-in device compliance check to enforce these requirements automatically.
- Require MFA for VPN login — not just a username/password
- Mandate that only company-managed or enrolled devices can VPN
- Set VPN session timeout (8 hours max) — don't allow indefinite sessions
- Log all VPN connections for CERT-In compliance (180-day log retention)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between VPN and Zero Trust for remote access?

VPN gives full network access once connected — as if the user is physically in the office. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) grants access only to specific applications for specific users, verified continuously. ZTNA is more secure but more complex to set up. For 5–20 users accessing basic office resources, VPN is fine. For 50+ users or highly sensitive data, move to ZTNA.

Is VPN legally required for Indian businesses with remote teams?

VPN is not legally mandated, but CERT-In 2022 guidelines require VPN service providers to maintain user logs for 5 years. For businesses, using VPN for employee remote access is compliant as long as you maintain your own connection logs for at least 180 days.

How much does a business VPN cost for 20 remote employees in India?

FortiGate 40F (small office firewall with built-in VPN): ₹20,000–30,000 one-time. VPN client licenses: usually included with the firewall. Sophos UTM for 25 users: ₹15,000–25,000/year. Zscaler Private Access for 20 users: ₹20,000–40,000/year. Add professional setup cost: ₹10,000–20,000.

Set up secure remote access for your team today. Our network security team designs and deploys VPN and Zero Trust solutions for Indian businesses. Get a free remote access assessment.