Comcast Business is teaming up with HPE’s Aruba to improve remote workers’ VPN connection experiences.

Comcast Business’ Christian Nascimento

The companies just announced Comcast Business Teleworker VPN, which gives remote employees a connection to the corporate network. The solution aims to mirror the connection quality of those in a physical office. The centrally managed remote access VPN solution tackles pain points that COVID-19 brought to the surface this year.

“Though the number of people working partially or fully remote has been on the rise for years now, the pandemic has truly sent this trend into hyperdrive,” said Christian Nascimento, Comcast Business’ vice president of product management. “Comcast Business Teleworker VPN enables enterprises to reimagine the work from home experience for both employer and employee alike, all while maintaining the security, performance and management they enjoy in-office.”

The solution brings together Comcast’s Managed VPN Aggregator, which resides at the office location, and the cloud-native Aruba ESP platform. As a result, a company can apply the same security policies to home and office-based employees. Comcast provides around-the-clock support.

WFH Trends

Comcast cited a Nemertes Research study stat projects 70% of enterprises to maintain their remote work strategy in the long-term. However, 30% of companies reported problems with the setup and management of remote connections.

Nemertes Research principal analyst John Burke said remote workers’ applications must perform at the same level as their office counterparts.

Nemertes’ John Burke

“The workplace as we knew it changed quickly, dramatically, and permanently in 2020 — and gone are the days where remote employees can serve as a blind spot for IT departments,” Burke said.

Comcast Business said that the new solution pairs with the teleworker connectivity offer that the company launched earlier this year.

Michael Dickman, Aruba’s senior vice president of product management, said the offering makes remote workers more efficient, flexible and productive.

Aruba’s Michael Dickman

“Work-from-home solutions require enterprise-class security and performance, with consumer-class ease of use,” Dickman said. “Aruba ESP delivers on both fronts with secure policy-driven access to the full spectrum of corporate services, in a form factor perfect for home that is simple to use with plug-and-play installation.”

Check out our work-from-home report, which features insights from Christian Nascimento, Nemertes Research and other industry experts.

HPE recently finalized its acquisition of SD-WAN provider Silver Peak and merged Silver Peak into the Aruba business unit.