Which best describes a corporate VPN?

A corporate VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is designed to provide a secure communication channel over a public network, primarily the internet, enabling remote users to access company resources as if they were directly connected to the organization's internal network. This secure connection is essential for maintaining confidentiality and integrity of data as it travels between remote devices and corporate systems. By encrypting the data transmitted over the VPN, it ensures that sensitive information remains protected from unauthorized access, enabling employees to work from various locations while safeguarding the company’s resources.

The other options do not accurately capture the purpose or functionality of a corporate VPN. For instance, describing a VPN as a public network with unrestricted access overlooks the security aspect that is foundational to VPN technology. Similarly, a firewall's role is to monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules, which does not align with the primary function of a VPN. Finally, while cloud services can include data storage and processing, this concept is unrelated to the secure remote access capability specifically offered by a corporate VPN.