Planning Your VPN Using NSM Overview

NSM offers you maximum flexibility for creating a VPN. You can choose your topology, authentication level, and creation method. Because you have so many choices, it’s a good idea to determine what your needs are before you create the VPN so you can make the right decisions for your network.

These decisions include:

• VPN Topology—What do you want to connect? How many devices? How do you want these devices to communicate? Will you have users as VPN members?
• Data Protection—How much security do you need? Do you need encryption, authentication, or both? Is security more or less important than performance?
• Tunnel Type—Do you want an always-on connection or traffic-based connection?
• VPN Manager or Device-Level—How do you want to create the VPN? Maintain the VPN?

The following topics provide information to help you make these decisions.

• Determining Your VPN Members and Topology
• Protecting Data in the VPN
• Choosing a VPN Tunnel Type
• VPN Checklist

Related Documentation

• Defining Members and Topology in NSM
• Traffic Protection Using Tunneling Protocol in NSM Overview
• Traffic Protection Using IPsec Tunneling Protocol Overview