Would you trust a water treatment system that only filters part of the supply and lets the rest flow in unmonitored? Probably not. Especially if it also interferes with your pumps, clogs your distribution valves, or sets off SCADA alarms for no good reason.
Yet this is exactly what many Energy & Utilities (E&U) providers are doing when they use Secure Remote Access (SRA) tools designed for information technology (IT) settings. These tools may look the part on the surface – but dive a little deeper, and you’ll find that they just don’t hold water in your operational technology (OT) environment.
Any tool that causes downtime, adds complexity, or requires a cloud connection is likely not a good fit when you're operating critical infrastructure. After all, security is important — but safety and availability will always be the top concerns when it comes to OT and industrial control systems (ICS).
An SRA solution that's built for OT will take these priorities into account by
maximizing uptime.
deploying easily without a full infrastructure overhaul.
ensuring secure access for the legacy systems and third-party vendors you rely on.
But how do you choose a remote access tool that will truly meet your needs?
It starts by asking the right questions.
In this guide, you’ll find 8 essential questions every E&U organization should ask before choosing an SRA solution – based on real-world challenges, evolving compliance demands, and today’s increasingly volatile threat landscape.
With this guide, plant managers, OT security leaders, and other E&U practitioners can:
Separate real OT solutions from retrofitted IT tools
Spot red flags before it’s too late
Understand what secure, scalable, and frictionless access should look like
Because when remote access goes wrong, the risks don’t stay remote.
Get the clarity and confidence you need to future-proof access to your OT systems.