Privileged Remote Access Demo

Hello everyone. In this video, I’m going to give you a short demonstration of Delinea’s Remote Access Service. But, to tee that up, I first want to describe what the Remote Access Service is, it’s ties to Delinea Secret Server, and why you should even care about this solution.

Delinea Remote Access Service is a complement to our market-leading Secret Server solution.

In case you’re not familiar, Secret Server is a core component of Delinea XPM or Extended Privilege Management. It’s a comprehensive privileged account and session management solution available both on-premises and in the cloud.

With the addition of Remote Access Service, Secret Server users can expect to gain even better security and enhanced usability when establishing remote sessions to servers and network devices located in their data center or in the cloud. It’s ideal for a workforce that’s primarily remote, for both employees and vendors.

A big benefit of this integration of RAS with Secret Server is that you manage secrets, RAS sessions, and monitor live remote access sessions all from the same UI.

Delinea’s Remote Access Service simplifies and automates the management of remote workers accessing the IT resources they need to be productive and secure. This enables you to confidently embrace third-party vendors, contractors, and a remote workforce with the right amount of security that also balances productivity.

As the slide shows, with Delinea Remote Access Service, you get:

• Access From Anywhere – doesn’t matter where you are, so long as you have a browser and access to the internet. In other words, no client apps that lock you into that laptop.
• You get Zero Standing Access – you can limit access to legitimate users only when they need it. Embrace the principle of least privilege and align with best practices like zero standing privilege.
• And you get Seamless Security – to ensure your internal systems are protected from external threats

Delinea Remote Access Service is quick and easy

You log in to your Delinea Platform tenant, pick your credential secret, and click a button to launch the session. You do what you need to do in the browser. Then you quit, and Remote Access Service tidies everything up. You can't get more seamless than that.

Alright – let’s get to the demo. In this demo, I’m simply going to play the role of a remote user who needs to log in to a Linux box and a Windows box.

I’m going to run through this demo at standard pace, then after that, revisit some observations.

First is logging into to the Delinea Extended Privilege Management service with my credentials.

Now I’ll navigate to the Vault section and scroll down to find my Windows Account secret. I’ll open this secret, select the launch option, choose a destination site, and up pops a browser window with a secure remote RDP session into my Windows instance. That’s all there is to it.

Let’s switch back to the Delinea Platform. This time I’ll choose an SSH secret and use that to log in to a Linux box hosted in Amazon Web Services in a similar way. This time, though, by selecting the contextual launch icon for this secret. And I now have an SSH connection to that box in AWS.

Earlier I mentioned a benefit of Secret Server and Remote Access Service integration being one place to manage it all as well as monitor live RAS sessions. I have another browser window logged into this Delinea Platform and from the Session Recordings page, here’s the live monitored SSH session. If I go back to that session and perform some actions, you see that reflected in the live monitor window.

Now, before I wrap up, I want to highlight a few observations from that demo.

First, I initially logged into the Delinea Extended Privilege Management service using a browser. No dependence on my corporate laptop or a VPN client. Once logged in, my visibility to secrets as well as what secrets and remote servers I can log into is restricted based on Secret Server roles.

The two remote sessions I established were presented through my browser as well, even though the downstream protocols were RDP for Windows and SSH for Linux, so no clients required there.

Also, since we’re not using a VPN, we’re not physically joined to the target AWS or Azure network. This avoids the potential spread of viruses or malware from my laptop to the servers, and related to that, IT doesn’t need to install management software on the laptop like Cisco NAC.

Other benefits of not using a VPN include stronger, more fine-grained access control for remote sessions and of course—cost reduction by reducing the number of VPN licenses.

You want to keep your virtual private clouds private and avoid poking holes in the firewall that will increase your risk of being breached. Our VPN-less approach supports this. Users have a single UI from which to access Secret Server secrets, to establish Remote Access Service sessions, and to do live monitoring of those sessions.

Finally, note that I was surgically deposited on the target server instead of a VPN jump-host that can expose the user—or a cybercriminal—to the broader network.

You can benefit from Delinea Remote Access Service in many ways as you see on the screen, here. Perhaps the biggest wins are a streamlined experience for users combined with stronger security, challenging that old aphorism of security at the expense of productivity.

Let me wrap this video up with a summary of benefits for end users, internal IT and the help desk, and the business. I’m not going to go through all these bullets—I’ll leave them as a reference for you to review at your leisure. But suffice it to say, benefits for end users revolve mostly around convenience and improvements to productivity.

For IT and the help desk, benefits focus on reduced complexity, fewer moving parts, less struggling to ensure 3rd-parties have a suitable workstation security posture. Even cutting down costs by avoiding expensive VPN licenses. And for the business, the C-level and BOD wants to see new digital-first initiatives drive revenue while reducing the risks of cyberattacks, being compliant, improving productivity, and reducing costs.

Delinea Remote Access Service aligns perfectly with these goals.

So, as you can see, there's lots of benefits for our existing Secret Server customers beyond its incumbent remote access capabilities, as well as a modern secure remote access solution for those of you exploring modern Privileged Access Management solutions.

Thanks very much indeed for your time and please enjoy the rest of your day.