If configured appropriately, both SecureConnect and VPN can be used to access the web interface (or other service) of a device connected to your encoder.
Why use SecureConnect?
SecureConnect is the simplest mechanism and does not require additional infrastructure to be set up to connect to your device.
SecureConnect creates a tunnel between your EdgeVis Client and the encoder. All tunnelled traffic is part of the EdgeVis link between the encoder and server, and it is constrained by the maximum bandwidth of the encoder - and this is limited to between 20%-50% (configurable) of your maximum bandwidth.
Pros:
It is entirely built-in into EdgeVis - no additional networking setup is required.
Simple setup - you only need to configure your encoder with the local device's details, then use EdgeVis Client to tunnel through to your device.
EdgeVis is still in full control of the traffic leaving the encoder, so it can provide the same reliability mechanisms - using SecureConnect should never cause the live video playback to stop
Cons:
It only supports connection to a single port on your desired device.
If you don't use EdgeVis Client normally, then you need to install/configure our client for this specific purpose.
By limiting the use of bandwidth to stay within the EdgeVis link it is quite a slow link - large web pages can take 30-60 seconds to load.
Why use VPN?
EdgeVis encoders running version 8.6 and above can use VPNs to access devices attached to their encoders.
You can turn your EdgeVis encoder into a VPN router, and you can access the connected devices using the VPN link - this is outside of the EdgeVis link to EdgeVis Server.
Pros:
It uses industry-standard networking and you should be able to use remotely your devices in the same manner as you would locally - no need to proxy through EdgeVis Client.
The speed of the connection is only limited to the full bandwidth available on your connection to the VPN server - this will be faster than SecureConnect.
Cons:
You must setup, secure, and maintain a VPN infrastructure to support this.
By using a VPN data link outside of an EdgeVis link, you no longer have EdgeVis bandwidth controls to control costs - these only control the EdgeVis link to EdgeVis Server.
By having data outside of the EdgeVis encoder-to-server link there is the potential for contention in low bandwidth situations. EdgeVis will manage its link the best it can, but you now have two different mechanisms (VPN and EdgeVis) contending for the same bandwidth.