Best 10 Secure Remote Vendor Access Solutions Privileged Access
As industrial organizations accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, remote connectivity has become an operational necessity rather than a convenience. Manufacturers, energy providers, utilities, oil and gas operators, transportation networks, and critical infrastructure organizations increasingly rely on third-party vendors, OEMs, system integrators, and maintenance contractors to remotely monitor, troubleshoot, update, and maintain critical Operational Technology (OT), Industrial Control Systems (ICS), and Industrial IoT (IIoT) environments.
While remote vendor access improves operational efficiency and reduces maintenance costs, it also introduces one of the most significant cybersecurity risks facing industrial organizations today. Many of the most damaging cyber incidents in recent years have involved compromised remote access channels, stolen credentials, unsecured VPN connections, or excessive privileged access rights granted to external parties. Once attackers gain access through a trusted vendor connection, they can move laterally across networks, disrupt production processes, manipulate industrial assets, or even impact safety-critical operations.
Traditional remote access methods such as shared credentials, unmanaged VPNs, and always-on network connections are no longer sufficient for protecting modern industrial environments. Today’s threat landscape demands a Zero Trust approach that verifies every user, limits access to only what is required, continuously monitors sessions, and provides complete visibility into vendor activities. This is where secure remote vendor access solutions with privileged access management (PAM) capabilities play a crucial role.
Modern remote access platforms enable organizations to grant secure, time-bound, audited, and least-privilege access to external vendors without exposing critical OT networks. Features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), session recording, credential vaulting, just-in-time access, approval workflows, and real-time monitoring help security teams maintain control while ensuring operational continuity.
In this article, we explore the 10 best secure remote vendor access solutions for OT, ICS, and Industrial IoT environments. We examine their key capabilities, security advantages, and ideal use cases to help industrial organizations select the right platform for securing privileged vendor access while maintaining compliance, operational resilience, and cyber risk management.
What a strong OT remote vendor access solution should do
A good platform should do more than open a tunnel. It should verify identity, enforce MFA, limit access to a specific asset or application, isolate sessions, record what happened, and let you shut access off instantly when the job is done. In OT, that control plane should also respect uptime, low bandwidth, legacy protocols, and the realities of plant-floor operations.
1) Claroty xDome Secure Access
Claroty’s xDome Secure Access is built specifically for cyber-physical and OT environments. The platform emphasizes Zero Trust controls for first- and third-party users, adds PAM and IGA capabilities, supports low-bandwidth conditions, and is positioned as a SaaS option that can reduce deployment overhead. Claroty also notes that traditional solutions often fall short of IEC-62443 and NERC-CIP expectations because they lack real-time monitoring and detailed auditing.
For industrial organizations that want OT-native access controls rather than a repackaged IT remote access tool, this is one of the strongest options on the list. It is especially attractive when your vendor access program needs both operational continuity and better evidence for audits.
2) Xona
Xona is purpose-built for OT and ICS secure remote access. Its current platform positions itself as a browser-based Zero Trust solution that delivers controlled, audit-ready access without VPNs or endpoint installs, while also supporting identity-based access, protocol isolation, session recording, and time-bound permissions. Xona also highlights vendor and OEM access use cases across industries such as manufacturing, utilities, oil and gas, and healthcare.
This is a strong fit when you want to replace broad remote connectivity with tightly controlled sessions that are easier for operators and auditors to reason about. The emphasis on protocol isolation makes it especially relevant where OT tools and session flows need to be contained rather than simply networked.
3) CyberArk Vendor Privileged Access Manager
CyberArk’s Vendor Privileged Access Manager is designed to give external vendors secure privileged access without VPNs, passwords, or agents. The product highlights session isolation, monitoring, and audit capabilities, along with just-in-time provisioning and biometric MFA. CyberArk also positions the platform for vendor access to critical internal resources and says it can simplify provisioning while improving security and compliance evidence.
For OT teams, the value is clear: you get a mature PAM model with strong vendor workflow controls. CyberArk’s broader OT and IoT messaging also reflects the reality that industrial environments need privileged access governance across more than just a handful of administrator accounts.
4) BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access
BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access focuses on just-in-time, zero trust access for internal, external, and third-party users. The company’s OT materials say the solution can create secure pathways into OT environments without requiring a VPN, while supporting local tools, protocol tunneling, session recording, MFA, and time-bound access.
This makes BeyondTrust a solid choice for organizations that need a mature privileged remote access layer with broad session controls and strong third-party governance. It is particularly useful where vendors still need to work with native OT tools rather than a highly abstracted interface.
5) Delinea Privileged Remote Access
Delinea’s Privileged Remote Access is a browser-based, VPN-less remote access offering delivered through the Delinea platform. Delinea’s OT page says it secures privileged access across OT, IT, and cloud environments by controlling credentials, sessions, endpoints, and identities, while reducing risk without disrupting operations.
Delinea is a strong option for buyers who want a practical balance between usability and governance. The platform’s cloud-native approach and emphasis on controlling credentials, sessions, and endpoints make it a sensible fit for mixed environments where industrial access is only one part of a larger identity program.
6) FortiPAM
FortiPAM provides privileged access management across IT and OT environments, with account discovery, secure password storage and rotation, access controls, and session monitoring and recording. Fortinet also says the product supports OT use cases and secure remote access, with ZTNA enforcement, agentless connectivity, credential rotation, session logging, and user management.
This is a compelling choice if you are already invested in Fortinet’s security stack or want PAM and secure remote access in one operationally integrated ecosystem. Its support for passwordless, SSO, adaptive MFA, and detailed session controls makes it especially practical for organizations trying to reduce credential sprawl in industrial networks.
7) Forescout Secure Remote Access
Forescout’s Secure Remote Access is an agentless platform purpose-built for OT and other cyber-physical systems. The product documentation and solution pages describe a flexible model for different users and operational scenarios, with an SRA gateway that mediates interactions and provides live session awareness, rather than just screenshots or after-the-fact logs.
That makes Forescout especially interesting for environments where visibility is not optional. If your challenge is not only granting access but understanding what is happening in real time, Forescout’s approach aligns well with the operational need to respond before a session turns into an incident.
8) Microsoft Entra Private Access
Microsoft Entra Private Access is a Zero Trust alternative to legacy VPNs for private apps and resources. Microsoft says it provides identity-centric access, enforces Conditional Access with MFA, location-based security, adaptive least-privilege policies, and supports access to private resources across on-premises and cloud environments. It also extends least-privilege access to guest users and external collaborators.
This is not an OT-only product, but it can be useful for organizations standardizing vendor access across IT and OT while leaning heavily on the Microsoft identity stack. It is a better fit for application and resource access than for deeply specialized OT session workflows, so it tends to sit higher in broader enterprise ZTNA programs than in highly specialized control-room use cases.
9) Zscaler Private Access with Privileged Remote Access
Zscaler Private Access offers identity-based, application-level access without exposing the network, and Zscaler says it also provides secure connectivity for IoT and OT as well as privileged remote access workflows. Its PRA materials describe temporary access to specific applications, and its broader ZPA platform emphasizes zero trust access without traditional VPN exposure.
Zscaler is a strong option for companies already pursuing a Zero Trust architecture across users, contractors, and third parties. It is especially attractive when you want a cloud-delivered access layer that can scale across many business units, though OT teams should still validate the exact control behavior needed for their asset classes and protocols.
10) HashiCorp Boundary
HashiCorp Boundary is an identity-based secure remote access platform that uses trusted identity providers for SSO and role-based authorization, and it is designed to connect users to dynamic infrastructure such as virtual machines, Kubernetes, and databases. HashiCorp positions Boundary as modern privileged access management for cloud and dynamic environments, with a focus on secure remote access based on user identity.
Boundary is best viewed as a modern privileged access control plane for infrastructure teams rather than a deeply OT-specific remote access suite. For organizations that need clean, identity-based access to backend systems, bastions, and adjacent operational platforms, it can be a useful piece of the larger vendor access strategy.
How to choose the right solution
The best platform for your environment is the one that fits your architecture, not the one with the loudest marketing. In OT, the deciding factors are usually whether you need browser-based access, protocol isolation, session recording, credential vaulting and rotation, MFA, temporary approvals, and immediate revocation. NIST’s guidance on remote access, least privilege, and managed access control points is still the right north star here.
If your OT estate is dominated by legacy assets and vendor support sessions, an OT-native platform such as Claroty, Xona, Forescout, or a PAM tool with strong OT support may be the best fit. If your program is more about unifying identity and remote access across the enterprise, options like CyberArk, BeyondTrust, Delinea, FortiPAM, Microsoft Entra Private Access, Zscaler, or Boundary may be the better strategic layer.
Final takeaway
Secure remote vendor access is no longer about connecting people to a network. It is about granting a verified identity temporary access to a specific industrial asset, under strict controls, with full visibility and a fast off switch. The organizations that get this right are the ones that treat vendor access as a governed business process, not a help desk exception. That is exactly the direction modern OT security guidance and current vendor platforms are moving.