With majority of Singapore’s workforce now working from home, the residential network is increasingly getting congested with traffic from enterprise and consumer usage. The increase in the number of devices that need to be connected to the corporate network also contributed to the network congestion at home.
Singapore Internet Service Provider ViewQwest has observed a 30% increase in Internet traffic over the past few weeks. It claims to have received a 10-fold increase in requests for work-from-home (WFH) solutions from enterprises who are currently not equipped to accommodate a full WFH arrangement for their staff due to network challenges and insufficient VPN licenses.
Responding to the demand the ISP has rolled out WFH solutions to help businesses which are facing issues connecting to office networks due to congested Internet connections at home.
For homes with pre-existing fibre broadband service, ViewQwest uses the unused fibre optic terminal point to install a second residential broadband line that can connect the user directly and privately to the office network without VPN.
The Private Network directly addresses the main issue that businesses currently face when using standard, non-cloud based Virtual Private Network (VPN) services – slow network performance especially during peak hours.
The use of the spare fibre optic terminal point at home means no impact to the home network. WFH staff who connect to the Private Network are guaranteed optimal connection between their homes and their office network without the hassle of VPNs.
Vignesa Moorthy, CEO of ViewQwest said, “Traditionally, VPN solutions are sized to support only 10 to 20 per cent of the workforce connecting at any point in time. When too many people who are working from home use VPNs, they are bound to face slower network performance as the VPN solution will be operating over its initial capacity. In addition, the home network in which the VPN is operating from will also be congested with enterprise and consumer usage, which slows the network performance further.”
ViewQwest is also offering a Cloud VPN for businesses that want to scale more easily.