Secure Remote Vendor Access to the Enterprise Data Center

To maximize uptime and lower total cost of ownership, more and more enterprises are allowing their IT equipment vendors and service providers to access their network to diagnose and, when possible, resolve issues remotely. However, current remote service methods—such as technology for remote network access that is customized for remote vendor access—can introduce risk and security vulnerabilities to the enterprise data center. Considering that a single security breach can cost an organization millions of dollars (not to mention market cap and negative PR), enterpris-es are questioning whether their current remote service methods are putting them at risk.

To minimize risk while achieving high availability of their data centers, companies are seek-ing a centralized, secure, and easy-to-manage platform that is specifically designed for securing remote vendor access—without exposing the network to the security vulnerabilities and costs of modems, VPNs, or other changes to the network or security infrastructure. This next-generation platform must increase the accountability of service providers by offering complete visibility into how they perform against their service-level agreements (SLAs) as well as auditing capabilities for internal and external compliance reporting, while enabling vendors to leverage the benefits of outsourcing while maintaining or increasing margins.

Today’s Complex, Always-On Enterprise
As recently as the late 1990s, the number of applications for which IT was responsible to sup-port seemed somewhat manageable. Today, with the wide adoption of the Internet, application technology has evolved into distributed systems in geographically dispersed locations that reach beyond corporate firewalls. Applications now comprise different—often temperamental and fragile—technology layers, such as storage servers, routers, switches, Web servers, as well as the applications themselves. These highly complex, interdependent layers make it challenging for IT departments to maintain technology knowledge while achieving high availability.

To handle the class of problems that require expert-level assistance, organizations increasingly rely on third-party experts, who, in turn, diagnose issues by accessing their networks with mostly reactive network-connectivity solutions. These solutions open the enterprise to security vulner-abilities by granting access to untrusted users and providing inadequate control and auditing to meet compliance requirements.

The Pitfalls of Current Network-Connectivity Solutions
There’s a movement underway for IT organizations to harden their network access policies and procedures. This involves removing modem and desktop-sharing access, while providing capabilities to monitor and control all third-party activities. At the same time, increasing collaboration between enterprises and their service ecosystem of external vendors, partners, and service providers is the impetus behind more efficient and secure remote access and support solutions.

Legacy technologies are a stop-gap measure to solve third-party remote access needs, often requiring IT to cobble together firewalls, modems, and VPNs. Although these approaches may suffice for the short term, increasing demand and complexity will quickly make these solutions unmanageable and highly expensive to maintain.

The majority of these network-connectivity solutions fall short in meeting the top-line objectives of enterprises, which include:

• Managing Risk – Modem solutions are used pervasively across the organization, but they are widely known to be a high security risk.
• Reducing Cost – Internal organizations dedicate far too much time and effort reviewing, approving, and provisioning third-party access.
• Achieving Compliance – Current network-connectivity solutions provide no way of meeting external and internal compliance requirements, which are driving the need for improved visibility and control over third-party access.
• Improving Operations – Service and support processes that require external assistance are cumbersome and disruptive to the business.

Introducing Axeda ServiceLink for Data Centers
Axeda® ServiceLink for Data Centers is the solution for managing secure external ac-cess directly to mission-critical equipment within your private network—without ex-posing the network to the security vulnerabilities and costs associated with modems, VPNs, or other changes to your network or security infrastructure. Unlike network-connectivity solutions alone, Axeda ServiceLink is a fully integrated platform with a suite of browser-based applications for providing secure collaboration between manufacturers, service providers, and enterprises. As a result, enterprises can lower operating costs while better managing security risks and optimizing the operation of mission-critical equipment. Finally, Axeda ServiceLink is also the only VeriSign® security certified remote service platform in the industry, providing IT organizations with the protection, control, and regulatory compliance required for managing a multi-vendor services community.