What's a VPN? A Virtual Private Network. A misnomer really, or more of an anacranism. In the old days if you strung two T1 lines between two sites you had a Private network, or "PN". Now days if you run a 'tunnel' or encapsulated link between two sites it forms a 'virtual' T1 or Virtual Private Network.
Lots of people seem to be convinced that this is the next wave of "remote access". To me it looks like a giant extension cord from my house to the office. To my ISP it looks like more traffic. To Microsoft it looks like a way to sell more NT servers. To the VC's it's just another gamble. I wonder what the corporate IS guys think...
As the corporate firewall becomes a VPN server, more and more Internet traffic will be via encrypted, authenticated tunnels. Perhaps some day all Internet traffic will via virtual circuits which are brought up and down on demand. Like phone calls, only authenticated and encrypted. Sounds like ATM, huh? Don't tell anyone I said that.