Zero Trust Remote Access
During the global pandemic in 2020, a public sector power generation company needed to quickly implement a secure remote access solution for its 300+ remote employees. Operating critical infrastructure across thermal and hydro power stations, the company required a reliable and efficient method to connect its workforce while maintaining the highest levels of security. NetFoundry’s Zero Trust Remote Access solution was deployed in under six hours, ensuring secure, zero-trust connectivity and eliminating the complexities and vulnerabilities associated with traditional VPNs. The solution enhanced performance and met industry compliance requirements, enabling the organization to manage its remote assets confidently.
Case Study Highlights
Rapid Deployment Achieved
Implemented secure remote access in under six hours successfully.
Enhanced Security Protocols
Eliminated VPN vulnerabilities using military-grade zero trust security.
Improved Operational Efficiency
Achieved 60% operational improvement with cloud-native management system.
Beyond VPN Limitations
The power company sought a secure, scalable solution for remote access to critical infrastructure.
Obstacle
The pandemic forced the company to shift to a remote work model nearly overnight, necessitating a secure and efficient solution for remote access and management of their mission-critical infrastructure. Traditional VPN solutions presented several challenges:
- Security Risks: VPNs were vulnerable to cyber threats, which was unacceptable given the critical nature of the company’s operations.
- Performance Issues: Poor application performance, packet loss, and latency issues were common when relying on VPNs, especially for remote workers accessing applications over public internet connections.
- Scalability Concerns: The need to rapidly scale a solution that could be deployed across the company’s geographically dispersed data centers without physical hardware posed a significant challenge.
The power company needed a VPN alternative.
Opportunity
NetFoundry provided the organization with a software-defined, Zero Trust Remote Access solution that addressed these obstacles directly. Key features and benefits included:
- Zero Trust Security: NetFoundry’s platform eliminates the need for traditional network perimeter defenses by embedding zero trust principles directly into remote access applications. By default, only authenticated and authorized users can access the network, minimizing exposure to threats.
- Granular Access Controls: The solution implements least-privilege access, ensuring that employees only have access to the systems and data necessary for their roles, reducing internal threats and securing remote management activities.
- Secure Data Transmission: NetFoundry encrypts all data transmissions between the application and users, safeguarding sensitive information and protecting against interception or attacks during remote sessions.
- Developer-Friendly Integration: The solution offers SDKs and APIs, allowing seamless integration and customization to fit the company’s specific requirements, ensuring efficient and secure remote device management without the overhead of complex security steps like VPNs.
- Scalability and Flexibility: The cloud-native, software-defined nature of the platform allows it to be deployed across both cloud and on-premises environments, making it adaptable to various infrastructure needs without requiring specialized hardware.
Next-Gen Remote Access
NetFoundry’s Zero Trust solution enhances security, scalability, and efficiency for remote operations.
Transformative Remote Access
NetFoundry’s solution boosts security, performance, and efficiency for the power company’s remote workforce.
Outcome
The deployment of NetFoundry’s Zero Trust Remote Access solution delivered significant results for the power generation company:
- Rapid Implementation: The solution was implemented in less than six hours, allowing employees to connect securely before the nationwide lockdown could disrupt operations.
- Enhanced Security: By leveraging zero trust architecture, the company achieved military-grade security, eliminating the vulnerabilities associated with VPNs. The platform’s encryption and access control measures ensured compliance with industry regulations and protected against cyber threats.
- Improved Performance: The solution optimized application performance, addressing packet loss, jitter, and latency issues by utilizing NetFoundry’s core fabric to enhance data transmission routes.
- Cost Efficiency: The solution reduced costs by 30% compared to traditional VPN models, as no hardware procurement or installation was required.
- Operational Efficiency: The company achieved a 60% improvement in operational efficiency due to the platform’s simple, cloud-based management model and automated secure network configuration.
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NetFoundry’s solution transformed the power company’s approach to secure remote access, enabling efficient, compliant, and high-performance operations across a geographically dispersed workforce while protecting critical infrastructure from cyber threats.
Zero Trust Remote Access Solution
NetFoundry’s remote access solution provides secure, zero trust connectivity for organizations needing reliable remote management of systems, applications, and devices. Unlike traditional VPNs, NetFoundry embeds zero trust principles directly into its software, ensuring granular access control, encrypted data transmission, and seamless integration via APIs and SDKs.Â
This cloud-native, software-defined solution enhances security by eliminating network vulnerabilities, offering high performance, and providing scalability across cloud and on-premise environments. Ideal for mission-critical operations, NetFoundry’s remote access solution ensures compliance, improves operational efficiency, and delivers a seamless user experience without compromising security.
About NetFoundry
Networking once limited application innovation and automation, with security and performance improvements often added as an afterthought. NetFoundry is transforming cybersecurity by embedding zero trust networking directly into code. Our NetFoundry Cloud solution integrates zero trust networking as software within apps, APIs, IoT devices, and critical infrastructure—rendering these assets invisible and unreachable to attackers.
As the world’s first programmable, cloud-native, zero trust network, NetFoundry Cloud delivers unmatched scale, concurrency, and performance. It empowers developers, network engineers, DevOps, and cloud teams to programmatically manage private, high-performance, zero trust networking with ease.
Built on the NetFoundry Platform and the Ziti architecture, our solution is available as open-source via the OpenZiti project, the world’s most widely integrated and trusted open-source networking platform. With NetFoundry, secure, zero trust networking is no longer an afterthought—it’s engineered directly into the core of digital infrastructure.
