What's the challenge
Remote connections are at the heart of every IT department. On a typical workday, sysadmins might connect to remote systems using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), PuTTY, browser-based tools, proprietary software, virtual private networks (VPNs) and many more remote connection technologies. These tools are essential—no one wants to go back to the days of trying to talk users through a problem over the phone. But the same tools can also lower productivity. Sysadmins use multiple remote connection technologies, each of which supports specific protocols and has its own tools and unique user interface.
On a one-off basis, remote desktop mechanisms seem simple enough to manage. For a single session, it is just a matter of using the right protocol and having access to the appropriate credentials to launch a connection and gain access to the system. But as sysadmins scale their efforts across larger networks, new cloud services, various connection protocols, numerous users, different business groups and customer environments, the difficulty of securely managing and configuring remote connections for each situation starts to arise. When IT groups manually manage connections, it doesn’t take long before the number of configuration settings and lack of user management foster chaos that quickly overwhelms the team.
