Executive Summary
A global cruise line and hospitality conglomerate faced significant challenges managing and securing third-party access across its distributed IT and OT infrastructure. They needed a solution to mitigate third-party risk and address overall complexities associated with traditional access methods. The customer chose the Xona Platform for its fast and easy deployment and superior performance over satellite communications, which is especially crucial for their maritime networks. Using the Xona Platform for both remote and local access has led to significant improvements in user experience, real-time monitoring, compliance, and efficiency. In addition, they have seen cost savings from reduced on-site support and infrastructure complexity.
The Challenge
With maritime vessels, hospitality sites, and thousands of IT/OT systems and assets across their global operations, the customer needed a solution to address third-party risk and overall complexities associated with traditional access methods. As a global cruise line, the customer has distributed infrastructure across IT and OT environments, including maritime networks. The convergence of IT and OT can pose both cybersecurity and operational challenges, especially for maritime networks that consist of various legacy technologies, vulnerable remote access systems, a lack of access control, and non-existent audit capabilities.
XONA SOLUTION
After evaluating other solutions, the customer chose Xona’s platform to address its complex secure access needs. Xona’s agentless architecture and rapid deployment (under one hour per site) were crucial, which allowed the customer to quickly roll out the solution across its global footprint without disrupting critical operations.
Xona’s performance across satellite communications was also a significant advantage. It provided the customer’s remote vendors and engineers with a smooth, responsive user experience, especially when accessing critical maritime resources that are high-latency prone. Xona’s real-time access monitoring and recording capabilities also enhanced the customer’s ability to manage third-party access, helping ensure regulatory compliance.
While initially deploying the Xona platform for secure remote access, the customer realized they could leverage Xona’s local deployment capabilities to strengthen their security posture. By allowing vendors and team engineers to connect to the Xona platform instead of directly to their networks or maritime infrastructure, the customer minimizes their attack surface and better protects its critical systems. This ultimately gives the customer complete control over all users’ access.
Using the Xona Platform, the customer saves money and is less dependent on vendor on-site support. It also reduces the complexity of their infrastructure – eliminating the need for outdated and redundant technology like jump servers.
THE XONA DIFFERENCE
Deploys Quickly without Disrupting Network Operations
The Xona Platform can be deployed in as little as 20 minutes. With the fewest dependencies needed for deployment, it can be accessed and maintained from any device without agents or plug-ins. The Xona Platform can be implemented quickly to provide reliable and responsive remote access without disrupting network operations.
