What Microsoft 365 Apps for Business Come Included?
If your business has grown used to asking “should we use a VPN or move to SASE,” it’s worth pausing on that question, as the two aren’t rivals fighting for the same job. While a VPN protects a connection, SASE is a broader way of managing access and security across everywhere your business now operates, from the office to a laptop in a hotel lobby.
Understanding how to secure a business network in 2026 starts with knowing what each option is actually built to do, rather than picking whichever term sounds more current. That’s what this guide sets out to unpack, beginning with the technology most businesses already have in place.
A business VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between a device and your network, so someone working from home or a café can reach internal systems without exposing that connection to whoever else is on the same Wi-Fi. For years, when people have wondered how to protect company networks when staff aren’t in the building, this has been the standard answer. It still works well for smaller, stable setups with a handful of remote users connecting to on-premises servers.
The strain shows up as a business changes shape. Once your team is split across sites, using cloud tools like Microsoft 365, and logging in from more devices than before, a VPN can start routing everything through a central gateway, even traffic that never needed to touch the office network. That slows things down and creates a single point of failure. It’s rarely that VPNs stop working, it’s that the way most businesses now operate has moved on from what a VPN alone was designed to handle.
SASE, or Secure Access Service Edge, takes a different starting point. Rather than tunnelling everyone back to one place, it combines networking and security into a single cloud-delivered service, so users connect to a nearby, distributed point rather than a central office. SASE architecture explained simply is a set of security checks, including identity verification, web filtering, and cloud firewall controls, applied consistently wherever someone is working.
This tends to suit businesses supporting cybersecurity for remote teams spread across multiple sites or working from cloud-based applications day to day. Rather than granting broad access to the network once someone connects, SASE can check who they are, what device they’re using, and which specific application they need, then grant access accordingly. With both approaches on the table, it’s worth setting them against each other directly.
Set side by side, the differences become clearer. A VPN focuses on securing the connection itself, generally granting network-level access once a device is authenticated. Conversely, SASE architecture authenticates the user, checks the device, and then permits access only to the specific application requested, rather than the wider network. That’s a meaningful difference to consider when wondering how to secure a business network, particularly if you’re trying to limit what an attacker could reach if one account were compromised.
Cloud performance is another point of contrast. A VPN can backhaul cloud application traffic through a central point, adding delay. SASE is generally built to connect users more directly to cloud services. That said, the business VPN vs SASE security decision does not have a definitive right or wrong answer. A VPN remains a sound fit for legacy, on-premises systems that were never designed for cloud-based access, while SASE tends to suit distributed, cloud-first operations. The best network security solutions rarely rest on a single technology; they rest on matching the approach to how your business works.
Neither VPNs nor SASE are inherently unsafe. The risk usually comes from treating either one as a complete strategy rather than a single part of a wider setup. Some of the more common VPN security risks for businesses include:
It’s also worth clearing up a common point of confusion around the old business firewall vs VPN debate; this isn’t really an either/or comparison. A firewall controls what traffic is allowed in and out of your network, while a VPN secures a specific connection into it. Most businesses need both working together, alongside monitoring and access controls, rather than treating one as a substitute for the other. Getting these technical controls right is only part of the picture, though. UK businesses also have legal obligations to consider.
Choosing a VPN or SASE doesn’t automatically satisfy your obligations under UK GDPR. The ICO expects organisations to apply security measures that are appropriate to their actual risk, covering encryption, resilience, staff training, and regular testing, not just a single piece of technology bolted on. The specific control you choose should reflect the type of data you handle and how your business operates day to day [1].
Cyber Essentials, the government-backed certification scheme, sets out five technical areas every business should have covered:
A VPN or SASE deployment should support these fundamentals rather than replace them. Patching still matters. Access control still matters. This is really the heart of how to secure a business network responsibly: the underlying discipline behind whichever technology you choose, not the label on the product itself. With the compliance groundwork covered, the practical question becomes which technology actually fits your business [2].
There’s no universal answer to how to secure a business network and be wary of anyone who tells you there is. A well-managed VPN with strong authentication, monitoring, and regular patching can be safer than a poorly configured SASE platform. Equally, a properly planned SASE deployment can offer more granular protection than a VPN for a distributed, cloud-first team. What matters most is the quality of the setup, not which name is on it.
For many growing businesses, a hybrid approach ends up being the most realistic option. That might look like:
At Town & Country Communications, we’ve spent over 30 years helping businesses across Dorset, Hampshire, and Wiltshire work through exactly this kind of decision. As a family-run business, we take the time to understand how you actually operate, from your existing infrastructure to where your team is working from, before recommending a managed VPN, SASE, zero-trust, or hybrid approach that fits your business rather than a generic template.
If you’re not sure whether your current setup is still doing its job, that’s a conversation worth having before it becomes a problem. Our team can review your existing network, flag any weak points in remote access, and recommend a practical way forward, without pushing you toward a particular product.
Give us a call on 01202 514444 or fill in our contact form, and we’ll help you find the right approach for how your business actually works.
[1] Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), ‘A Guide to Data Security’: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/security/a-guide-to-data-security/
[2] National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), ‘Cyber Essentials’: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberessentials/overview
