I'm responsible for IT at a company in France, and we've recently acquired a subsidiary in China. We need to set up a site-to-site VPN to connect the Chinese office with our French infrastructure so that users in China can access our hosted data. From prior experience, I know that VPN connections from China to France can be quite unstable due to the Great Firewall, leading to issues like tunnel drops, packet loss, and high latency. Before going live with this setup, I'm looking for best practices to ensure reliable and stable connectivity. Specifically, I'm curious about recommended architectures for China-Europe connectivity (like IPsec, SD-WAN, cloud-based VPN hubs, MPLS, etc.), the potential benefits of using an intermediate cloud provider as a VPN relay, any specific tips related to WatchGuard equipment for connecting with China, and whether establishing multiple tunnels or active-active VPNs would help improve stability. Any real-world experiences or advice would be really helpful!
1 Answer
The Great Firewall does complicate things since it attempts to block VPNs. It's essential to consult with legal counsel in China since VPN use there requires government approval, and they might guide you to compliant solutions. Just be cautious, as this could potentially expose your French infrastructure to increased risk from Chinese authorities.
Why do we never see concerns about US products mentioned in these discussions, considering that US tech has its own backdoors and surveillance issues?