What is Session Collaboration?
Session Collaboration is the ability for multiple authorized users to securely join, share, and interact within an active remote access session in real time. This feature enables users, such as operators, engineers, OEM technicians, or support personnel, to collaboratively troubleshoot, configure, or monitor critical systems without compromising security or control. Unlike traditional screen sharing, session collaboration maintains granular access controls, auditability, and role separation throughout the shared session.
Why is Session Collaboration Important?
In operational environments, issues often require input from multiple parties, whether it's remote troubleshooting by an OEM, supervisory approval from a control room, or cross-functional diagnostics involving IT and OT teams. Without secure collaboration tools, teams must resort to ad hoc methods like conference calls, shared logins, or screen sharing over unsecured platforms, potentially introducing cyber risks, loss of accountability, and inefficiencies.
Session collaboration provides a secure, auditable way to bring the right experts into a session at the right time. It accelerates issue resolution, enhances training and knowledge sharing, and ensures that collaboration doesn’t circumvent security protocols. For critical infrastructure operators, it also enables remote vendor support, incident response, and real-time oversight, without needing to transfer control or credentials unnecessarily.
Collaborative sessions that are governed, time-bound, and recorded also meet requirements in IEC 62443, NERC CIP, NIS2, and TSA SD02E, supporting compliance mandates that demand accountability for all user actions, even in shared access scenarios.
How Does Xona Help with Session Collaboration?
Xona enables secure, real-time session collaboration through its built-in session sharing and control delegation features. Authorized users can invite other stakeholders, such as supervisors, peers, or external vendors, into an active session without restarting it or exposing sensitive credentials. Participants can observe, take shared control, or transfer control under strict policy enforcement and within the same encrypted, proxied session.
Each collaborative session is fully logged and recorded, ensuring compliance and forensic traceability. Whether it's responding to a SCADA alarm, reviewing a PLC configuration, or training a new field operator, Xona allows multiple users to act as one secure team, without compromising the session’s integrity or the system’s safety.
This capability is especially valuable in scenarios involving third-party vendors, remote sites, or time-sensitive outages, where rapid collaboration can mean the difference between extended downtime and swift recovery. Xona makes secure collaboration easy, controlled, and compliant with no extra tools or integrations required.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main benefit of session collaboration in secure remote access?
Session collaboration allows multiple authorized users to jointly troubleshoot or operate a system in real time, without compromising access control, credential security, or session auditability.
How does session collaboration differ from traditional screen sharing tools?
Unlike basic screen sharing, session collaboration provides controlled, auditable access with granular permissions, session logging, and role-based participation, tailored for secure operational environments.
Why is session collaboration important in OT and critical infrastructure settings?
Can collaborative sessions support compliance with standards like NERC CIP or IEC 62443?
How does Xona enable secure session collaboration without exposing credentials?
Xona allows users to invite collaborators into active sessions without restarting or revealing passwords, enforcing session-level controls and logging all interactions in real time.
