Simple IT Distribution LTD

It’s easy to say, “replace the VPN.” That is directionally right, but it’s not a complete strategy.

The deeper problem is that many OT environments were never designed for today’s remote operating model. They were built around availability, safety, uptime, segmentation, and specialized engineering workflows. Then digital transformation, IT/OT convergence, OEM support models, cloud connectivity, IoT, and workforce shortages changed the reality.

Now, organizations need remote access that is secure enough to effectively manage cyber risk, but practical enough for operations.

That means the new standard cannot be broad network access. It has to be:

• Identity-secured access

• Least-privilege access

• Just-in-time (JIT) access

• Session-monitored access

• Credential-protected access

• Operationally aware access

• Auditable access

This is why BeyondTrust’s OT positioning is highly relevant. Its OT security message focuses on helping organizations secure industrial networks without disrupting productivity, safety, or compliance. It calls out the same themes we see in the field every day: IT / OT convergence, poor password security, unsegmented networks, and visibility gaps across connected systems and remote access methods.

That matters because OT security cannot be positioned only as a cybersecurity initiative. It must be positioned as a resilience, safety, operational continuity, and risk reduction initiative.

BeyondTrust brings a strong and practical control set into this conversation.

Their OT solution centers around Privileged Remote Access, Password Safe, and Endpoint Privilege Management. In OT terms, that means they can help organizations reduce dependency on traditional VPNs, secure vendor and operator access, enforce least privilege, apply just-in-time (JIT) controls, record sessions, manage privileged credentials, and support zero trust objectives across industrial environments.

On their OT assessment page, BeyondTrust frames the problem well: modern OT systems depend on off-site vendors, operators, and employees, which creates new security risks as historically closed environments are opened for remote access. The free assessment is positioned around identifying the appropriate remote access and compliance solution for ICS and OT environments, with an emphasis on business continuity, safety, compliance, secure infrastructure access, and critical system protection.

This is the right conversation to be having.

The value is not simply that BeyondTrust can broker remote access. The value is that it can help bring remote access into a governed privileged access model. That includes visibility and control over remote sessions, least privilege enforcement, network segregation, simplified workflows, and comprehensive audit trails.

For many organizations, that’s a meaningful step forward from VPNs, shared credentials, unmanaged vendor tools, and loosely governed jump server access.

This is where Xalient and BeyondTrust create the most value together. BeyondTrust provides a strong technology foundation for privileged remote access, credential security, least privilege, and session governance. Xalient brings the advisory, architecture, integration, and execution experience needed to make those controls work in the real world.

That distinction matters.

Most clients do not simply need another tool. They need a clear operating model. They need to know what remote access exists today. They need to understand which OEMs, contractors, vendors, employees, and service providers have access. They need to identify where shared credentials are being used. They need to uncover shadow access. They need to define who approves access, how long it should last, what systems can be reached, what actions are allowed, and how the session is monitored.

They also need to do all of this without breaking operations.

That is where Xalient can lead with an advisory-first approach, then bring BeyondTrust into the right places in the architecture.

Together: BeyondTrust helps secure the access. Xalient helps design, integrate, operationalize, and govern the model.

The combined value can be positioned around five outcomes:

1. Discover and reduce shadow access

Gartner® is right to call out shadow access as an immediate concern. Many organizations have undocumented vendor connections, legacy VPNs, remote support tools, OEM tunnels, cellular access, shared accounts, and local workarounds that bypass formal governance.

Xalient can help clients assess and rationalize those remote access paths. BeyondTrust can then help bring privileged access into a more centralized, auditable, and controlled model.

2. Replace broad network access with controlled operational access

The old model gave users access to a network segment. The new model should give users access to the specific asset, application, or session required for the task.

BeyondTrust’s Privileged Remote Access aligns well here, especially around least privilege, JIT access, application access independent of network access, per-session MFA, activity recording, and reducing reliance on VPN-based access patterns.

Xalient can help design the target architecture, align it to the Purdue Model, and integrate the access pattern with identity providers, ITSM workflows, PAM governance, secure networking, and OT visibility tools.

3. Govern third-party and OEM access

Third-party access is one of the most urgent OT use cases. OEMs need access to support equipment and service-level agreements, but that access cannot be open-ended, undocumented, shared, or over-permissive.

The right model should include named users, approved access windows, ticket-based workflows, credential injection, session monitoring, automatic revocation, and clear evidence for audit.

4. Protect credentials and remove standing privilege

OT environments often include shared accounts, embedded credentials, default passwords, hardcoded credentials, service accounts, local admin rights, and legacy authentication patterns.

BeyondTrust Password Safe is relevant here because it provides discovery, onboarding, vaulting, rotation, credential injection, support for SSH keys and secrets, non-human accounts, and break-glass access.

Xalient can help clients define the credential strategy, prioritize the highest-risk assets and accounts, build the onboarding roadmap, and connect credential governance back to broader identity security and compliance requirements.

5. Build secure operations, not just secure access

This is the most important shift.

In OT, the goal is not simply to authenticate a user and establish a secure tunnel. The goal is to protect operations. That means safety, uptime, integrity, change control, visibility, and accountability have to be part of the access model.

Gartner®’s language around secure remote operations is important because it reflects where the market is going. OT remote access must become more granular, identity-centric, protocol-aware, auditable, and aligned to operational risk.

Xalient can help clients mature from tool deployment to operating model transformation.

OT remote access is becoming a strategic control point for identity-centric zero trust, and BeyondTrust plus Xalient can help clients modernize that control point without disrupting operations.

The first step is gaining visibility. Organizations need to understand exactly how remote access is used across their OT environments—who has access, how it’s granted, and how it’s controlled.

From there, Xalient and BeyondTrust can help clients move from fragmented access to governed access, from standing privilege to JIT, from shared credentials to accountable identities, and from remote connectivity to secure operations.

The future of OT security isn’t just about keeping attackers out. It’s about making sure every connection into the operational environment is known, justified, controlled, monitored, and aligned to the safety and resilience of the business.