BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access Reviews

Our company has been growing, and we have many audits as well as SOX compliance requirements. We have different SOX requirements, and we wanted to ensure that every activity is monitored. That was the main reason for deploying this solution into the environment.

We are using it like a VPN access for our external users, such as vendors, to allow them to access the resources within the organization. Instead of providing them the regular VPN access, we give them access to the privileged access solution so that we can monitor what they are doing, and we are able to view back the recordings of all the activities they've done.

We have not integrated Privileged Remote Access (PRA) with other solutions at the moment. We also have another solution of BeyondTrust. We have integrated that solution with other solutions, but we haven’t integrated PRA with other solutions. We just use it for remote access and credential injection.

It has put us at the forefront when it comes to security, auditing, and meeting SOX requirements. It is a top-notch solution for us in these aspects. Security is the key to fulfilling SOX requirements. Ever since we deployed it, we are able to provide external auditors, who audit the company, with recordings of who is in the environment. We are able to see what is happening. We are able to provide access durations and show who is accessing what and who has been given permission to access. It has really helped us in those aspects.

The fact that PRA does not require a VPN goes a long way for us because instead of our external users installing different VPN applications and having different user names and passwords for different applications, they can just make use of it via the web. They don't need to install an application, which is a very cool and nice feature for us.

In terms of security provided by PRA when it comes to access for remote and privileged users, the users get to access only what they are permitted to access. They can't go beyond what they're allowed to access. You don't have to give anybody the credentials to privilege accounts. The solution allows you to do account injection while you are using the solution, which is really good for us. So, you can do credential injection while accessing the solution, which is a top-notch security feature for us where you get to manage privileged credentials within the organization.

It is available in multiple formats. It is available as a physical and virtual appliance, or as SaaS. When we did the PoC, it was before COVID. We did the on-prem deployment for the PoC, but immediately after the PoC, COVID came, and we started to think of what will happen when we are not physically present. So, we had to go for the cloud solution, which is quite cool as well. It takes the burden away from IT admins, and we don't have to think of how many servers we have to manage.

It is important that through the use of PRA, there is no need to share passwords with users. We are able to do credential injection where you don't get to give users privileged user accounts. With the solution, we're able to do the privilege injection, which makes it perfect for us. Nobody gets to hold onto the privileged accounts. With the solution, we are able to inject it, which is good for us.

We are mainly using it to give access to third-party vendors. In order to ensure that we monitor the activities of what they're doing, we use PRA for their access. All our external users come in through PRA. For every internal user, we use the regular VPN. We are also looking into the cost of getting more PRA licenses if we are going to put every other user in the company on it.

We have integrated it with our Active Directory, which allows us to apply our Active Directory password policies. We don't need to create any other user account for whoever is coming in. We just get to create a user in Active Directory, and password policies are already applied. So, users come in by using the Active Directory credentials, which is another level of security as well.

One of the features that I really like about it is the ability to set a start date, time, and end date for the access. For example, you can set the access for a person from tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday and ending on a specific period of the day or a specific date. That's really quite helpful.

You can use the solution to access not just the Windows environment; you can also access your Linux devices and even your network devices. That's a very cool feature for us.

At the moment, I don't see any major problems with it. If anything, they can just change the look and feel of the login screen because it looks too simple to me. It does not have so much information. When you get to the login screen of the solution, you should have more information. We also have BeyondTrust Remote Support, and the login page looks similar to BeyondTrust Privilege Remote Access. I would love to see more rich information on the login screen or landing page so that rather than having a regular sign-in screen or page where you just provide a username and password and get into the solution, you should have more insight into what the solution does. I've mentioned this to them every time I have had an opportunity.

It was deployed last year.

Its stability is good. It is top-notch. They are doing well because I can see the way they do release updates for the solution. They are also at the top in terms of security updates, vulnerability assessments, and other things that are currently happening. They are doing well in terms of updates, which are also helpful in stabilizing the solution. With regular updates, you get a stable solution and also more improvements and features.

We are using cloud deployment. When you have a cloud SaaS solution as compared to having it in your own cloud environment or on-prem, you do not get to have much say on scalability. If you have deployed it within your environment, you get to see how to scale it up or scale it down, but when it is a cloud solution, you don't get to see what happens on the provider side. However, you get to know that at least you have been provided what you have paid for, and it is working perfectly. So, for me, scalability comes into the picture if I am managing the infrastructure within my environment, but that doesn't mean you can't talk to your provider to tell them that you want to include other things in the solution.

Their technical support is good. At any point in time, when I needed support, they responded quickly. There was a time when the local vendor reached out to us that there is a new upgrade, but on logging onto the platform, we couldn't see the update available. We reached out to their support, and the support personnel who picked up the case told us to give him just five minutes, and he will ensure that the update is available. Their technical support is beyond cool. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

We didn't use any similar solution previously.

We went for the SaaS solution. They provided the platform and the access to the UI to the local vendor, who is a product partner. 

Three people were involved in its deployment. One engineer from the local vendor worked with two people from my end. One of them was from the server side, and the other one was from the networking side. 

We didn't evaluate any other solution. We were already using BeyondTrust Remote Support to support our client's computers. It was deployed during the COVID period. Initially, it was implemented because management was thinking about how IT would manage the situation when working from home. The users had no credentials. With remote support, we were able to do that perfectly, which also gave us assurance that BeyondTrust PRA would work well for us, and we won't have any issues with it. So, the management was able to sell PRA to the top management. There wasn’t much discussion about it because of the previous experience that we had with BeyondTrust Remote Support. It has already paved the way for PRA to come into the environment.

I would tell others to just go for it. If they are security conscious and are concerned about security within their environment, then just go for it.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Our company provides a software/platform as a service to state and local governments, municipalities, and provinces. Since all of those need to be NIST 800-54 and FedRAMP compliant, we needed a privileged remote access tool to take care of that access piece. BeyondTrust fills that piece for us.

It certainly has made secure access something that is embraced rather than fought. People are willing to use the tool. That probably is the most significant thing about the product. It's easy, they like it, and it keeps us secure. Within three months, we started to realize the benefit of the product.

I don't know if I could pin down the best features to just one aspect. In terms of our users that use the product, it's really the overall ease of use. It saves our team hundreds of hours every year.

We like that Privileged Remote Access does not require a VPN. I suspect at the end of the day, if I used a one to ten scale, I would give it an eight. It's pretty important. Not having to go through a VPN is a win.

The security provided by PRA when it comes to access for remote and privileged users has been outstanding. It has met all of our objectives, everything from password rotation to securing and allowing us to clamp down access to the auditing and monitoring features.

When deciding on this solution, it was somewhat important that PRA is available in multiple formats as a physical and virtual appliance or SAS. We certainly needed virtual appliances. Over the long run, we may go with SAS.

PRA has had an effect on our network security. What I would say in terms of the effect is there's a whole element of password management that no one in managed services really needs to take care of anymore. That in and of itself has been a huge time saver.

It is extremely important that, through the use of a PRA, there is no need to share passwords with users. That takes us right back to the NIST 800-53 requirements.

We do use the solution to provide access to third-party vendors, however, not in the way intended, as we don't really let vendors in. In terms of the customers who purchase our platform services, there are instances where they need to be able to have access to the environment that we create for them. We are using the vendor features to give them access.

It is very important that PRA offers us SSO authentication. We use that for all of our users.

In terms of improvement, there are two things that come to mind. One is just in terms of the API interface, which needs some work. In terms of the ability to automate the creation of new accounts within it, it's still a bit laborious. The other piece that I would say I've been pushing for this whole period is simply to save a reason for access to the audit file as it's one of the requirements in NIST 800-53. It's been a pain working around that one, even though it's somewhat trivial.

I've used the solution for about three and a half years.

I've been running it for three and a half years. It has, by and large, been without issue. That's a pretty powerful statement. I wish I could say that about everything that I monitor.

It meets all our needs. We're running about 100 users and we're getting ready to upgrade our licensing. We'll be at about 350 nodes by end of the next couple of months. I don't see us hitting any issues with it for the foreseeable future.

We've got about a total base of about 100, however, I would say 60 are active users. Of that 60, 20% would be administrative, managed services, IT support, and that level. About five percent would be actual customer access, for any product user access. The rest would be the software development team that are the ones that manage our platform on the servers.

Our bread and butter are the platforms that we deploy to our end-user customers. It is in use at 100% of those. Every time we bring on new clients, we expand the usage. We've won a number of RFPs and bids this year. Over the next six to twelve months, it's going to probably increase by 30%.

Technical support is pretty solid. There's probably a little bit of room for improvement, however, we can get help when we run into an issue. If it's an issue, the resolution happens, not as quick as I would like, however, it gets done. Overall, I'd still give them an excellent mark for the support.

Positive

We previously used a different solution. We used TPAM. Trusted Privileged Access Management, was too cumbersome. We had to click 30 times to get into a server. Users hated it so much that there was an increased push to migrate away from Privileged Remote Access. That was really just not an option. We had to get off of that platform before we lost the ability to have any sort of monitoring going on for our access. I can't say enough bad things about TPAM. It is probably the worst product that I've ever worked with in terms of the designed interface. It met all of the security requirements that it needed to. It was excellent with that. However, the problem was that it was so burdensome to use and nobody wanted to use it.

The initial setup ended up being complex. The product still hadn't matured. I tried multiple times to align it to the security requirements that I had, and that proved to be extremely challenging initially. So much so that I thought we were going to have to ditch the product. With some really very excellent support from BeyondTrust, I was able to get through. However, it was not trivial.

The deployment started in November, December, and January. The deployment took two or maybe two and a half months.

I handled the deployment myself. As far as ongoing maintenance, it's not even a full-time requirement. I would say it requires maybe ten hours a month of staff time.

I did not use an integrator, reseller, or consultant. I did purchase professional services from BeyondTrust. They were great to work with and I would use them again. In many cases, they went above and beyond.

The ROI has been huge. If I compare it to just TPAM, our time savings per month over the TPAM product was close to 100 hours a month. Multiply that times a year, times three years, and the average FTE price is about $100 to $120 an hour. That's a lot of money. It's more than paid for itself.

Pricing was one of the big draws. It came in substantially less than some of its competition. I did a POC with four different competitors plus we already had TPAM. Hands down, this solution won on all accounts. Only the setup was a pain and I was able to work around the issues that I ran into.

When compared to some competitive products that are add-ons to PAM solutions, it was important to us that PRA stands on its own as a full solution. Sometimes just for keeping the product patched and current, to make sure there are no holes. That was very important.

PRA compared with other solutions when it comes to sessions, auditing, and monitoring of third-party and remote worker access is good. However, it doesn't necessarily give all of the logging features that some of its competitors do. It is adequate to meet what we need for the NIST and FedRAMP controls. At the end of the day, that is really my primary concern.

The advice I would give to others using the solution is to know what you are trying to accomplish and weigh the product in light of the goals or tasks you need to meet. There are some features or functionalities that may not fit some organizations as well as others. Just do a POC, test the product, and it in front of users. They are the ones that ultimately are going to have to live with your choice.

There's always a way if you're crafty. Get plugged in with the company. Through so many different phone calls with BeyondTrust, I ended up with access to one of their directors of product management and that opened a lot of doors.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. There's a little bit of room for improvement, however, it performs well.

Improvement-wise, I would like to look at the assessment results. Some of the capabilities in the solution were not as available or not as outstanding as CyberArk. We had to manage whatever little was available for us, especially its recording capabilities, logs, and a number of things.

I have experience with BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access. I am a customer of the solution.

It's a stable product. Based on the demos and interaction with it, it was stable.

I think the solution can be scaled, and it can be enhanced. I think that the thought process did include some feature scenarios that were not present in the solution at the moment. It is good in terms of scalability, considering some of the issues that may arise in the future.

The setup was done by somebody else in my company. The solution is deployed on the cloud.

Though the solution was a bit expensive, the overall pricing was average.

BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access was a great product. A consultant was assigned to us. They helped us understand the product with the demo.

It does address setting and specific requirements for different clients. It is not a one-size fits all type of solution, but it does address a number of important requirements for specific clients to an extent.

I think BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access should expand its use cases, considering that customers may have ten use cases. The solution should include some of the recommended use cases by customers.

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

One of my customers used old, poorly coded legacy applications, so programs required admin privileges to run. They wanted to give users the ability to run the applications without giving them admin rights.

The company wanted more secure desktops, and the solution provided that. Previously, everybody was an admin of the desktops, and they suffered a cryptographic lock attack. They recovered from this and implemented PRA to avoid repeating the scenario. They bought 500 licenses, the estimated number of staff using the legacy applications. They planned to upgrade to around 1000 licenses a few months later, realizing they had other applications that necessitated this kind of solution. 

The project goal was to allow staff to run applications with admin privileges without being admins, which was the product's most important feature.

The company had distinct groups of staff with different requirements, which weren't fulfilled by giving them all admin rights. The solution's data granularity allowed us to define specific use cases and population types and categorize users based on that. This gave us good control over the system. 

Privileged Remote Access not needing a VPN was a requirement in this case, as the user didn't implement a VPN, nor did they want to. This feature was a plus for the customer. 

From what we observed the security provided by RPA is very good. 

The solution being available in multiple formats was necessary in this case, as the client was adamant that the solution needed to be SaaS; a requirement for their IT configuration. The ability to test issues was crucial to them. 

The solution has improved the security of the client's network. 

Not needing to share passwords was crucial to the client. They were hesitant about credential sharing because of the suffered cryptographic attack.

Having an all-in-one solution was vital in this case, as most of the users did not have technical expertise. This necessitated a solution that is easy to use and implement, and an all-in-one solution simplifies the process significantly. 

The solution is very flexible, which is a plus, but I would say the implementation requires someone with knowledge and experience, as it can be easy to get lost in all the details. The implementation process could be streamlined and simplified. Though the complexity of the solution provides greater flexibility, it requires a lot of time to understand it fully.

The UI is somewhat basic, so that could use some work. It's okay; apart from that, it's an aesthetics issue.

I implemented the solution for one of my customers, which took three months, then I passed it over to them. 

The solution's stability is good. It's reliable and I didn't experience any bugs or glitches.

The product's scalability looks good. My client purchased 1000 licenses, maybe 10% for developers, and the rest for end-users. They need a functioning application without a complex IT setup and maintenance. 

Their customer support is very good. They are quick, knowledgeable, and helpful.

Positive

I carried out the deployment myself, and it was straightforward. I implemented it with Azure, and it took three months. One member of the security team is responsible for the maintenance. We had help from the publisher to set up the tool, and our strategy was to do an initial deployment for 100 users for proof of concept, then deploy for the remaining 400.

My client found the solution a bit expensive but considering their use case and requirements, they didn't have any other choice. As far as I know, implementation and licensing are the only costs. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

It's essential to get to know the product in detail because it's very complex. It can do whatever you want, but it requires some effort. That's why it's important to have an implementation team who knows what they are doing. It's crucial to delegate responsibility for the solution to someone who understands it and can work with the publisher team to find the proper configuration.

We have two use cases. We have it for the PAM, Privileged Identity (PI), the Vault solution, and Password List. We also have it on the desktop side of the house for our admin accounts.

Our network requires that Privileged Remote Access (PRA) does not require a VPN.

We are extensively using Privileged Identity, but not PRA.

We are one version back from the latest.

PRA only works in our Windows environment. It has helped us with not being able to see the password for our security reasons, but only in a subset of our environment. We only use it for password injection. We wanted it for all platforms, but it doesn't work. So, it is only used in our Windows environment.

It met a NIS control in which we needed to not have passwords visible to users because of malicious activity that happened to our company. That is the only positive effect that it has had so far. We have been able to go to the Windows platform and inject the passwords without people viewing passwords. It is not helping us with our Linux or cloud environments.

For the most part, it has been meeting our requirements for safe controls and just-in-time access.

It has been semi-easy to configure.

The visibility of the solution's Vault works as it is supposed to: out-of-the-box for domain accounts, endpoints, and local accounts associated with discovery jobs.

It is important to us that PRA offers SSO authentication. Our strategic requirements for NIS control, CCMC, and other regulations want us to do multifactor and single sign-on. 

We have been having some problems as of late.

One of our gaps or pain points is having multi-factor authentication at the endpoint and using the PRA password injection from BeyondTrust, which does not work in our environment. We can only have MFA at the login of BeyondTrust to check out the password. Therefore, we can't meet our security requirements of having it on the endpoint.

The solution's Vault seems to do what we need. It has some gaps when it is trying to process the password through multiple applications. If it fails, it doesn't notify us that it has failed. So, we only find that failure when we have an escalation or have to go back through to see what has happened, e.g., why the password didn't reset accurately. While it has some gaps, it works for the scenario that we need for the most part.

When we decided on this solution, it was extremely important to us that PRA was available in multiple formats, such as a physical and virtual appliance or as SaaS. Unfortunately, we can't use PRA because of our environment, which was disheartening. When we were sold the tool, they said that we could, but we can't because our environment is highly customized. We have so many use cases that it is not a feature that can be used across platforms for us.

We use PI and PRA together. If someone has checked out an account in PI, the session is open, and PI closed or checked back that account. Then, someone else checks out an account that is still active in a session, which causes multiple lockouts.

10 years.

The stability is not good. It has been taking over a year to get our platform. BeyondTrust hasn't been able to figure out what's wrong or why. We have been notified just recently, as of Friday, of two additional bugs in PRA. I don't consider this tool stable if there are bugs.

I have an internal team who manages all maintenance, batching, and fixing.

I don't have a good impression of scalability because we can't get past having a Windows platform.

We have over 130,000 people in our company. Only 100 people are able to use it because that is the amount of servers that we can deploy.

We have a dedicated TAM. We have a dedicated technical manager who helps us with any questions or deployment issues. We create tickets, working through him, and he goes to Level 3 if needed.

We have about 10 tickets open. 

We started with PI when it was Bomgar and Lieberman. We have also been using the Vault solution. Last year, we purchased PRA to help with our mitigation of malicious findings from a major outage from the malicious findings.

The initial setup was a bit confusing. We had to have our TAM help. We had problems right out of the box. It was not a smooth setup for us.

We have been trying for over a year. We only have 8,000 out of 26,000 servers deployed. It is not fully deployed because we don't have all our platforms working with PRA. 

We wanted all servers in our environment on all our platforms to have password injection, helping with the malicious activity and stopping people from seeing passwords. We were trying to meet some findings, but we didn't meet those findings.

We have a dedicated TAM from BeyondTrust, whom we pay for through an annual contract, and they help us.

We have not seen ROI when it comes to PRA.

Be cautious about:

• The number of licenses.
• What you consider a license does.
• Who your members are. 

Don't get into a situation where you are licensing per desktop or per person until you fully understand the licensing.

We pay an additional fee for a TAM.

After the PRA situation that we have been having for a year, we have been looking at other tools that can meet our requirements better than BeyondTrust. We are trying to move to other different modules.

We would like to use PRA, but it is not meeting our requirements for our different platforms. So, we are moving the password protection possibly to EPM because PRA cannot meet our requirements.

Know the requirements that you are trying to meet. This way, you purchase the correct module for the requirements that you are trying to meet. PRA is not always the correct module for certain requirements that you need if your environment isn't straightforward with only one operating system. If you are only in Azure and Windows, it probably works very well. However, if you have a hybrid or multiple platforms, then it is not the best tool.

For PRA specifically, our requirements weren't understood from point one. Our TAM said it would work, and once we got into it, it did not work. 

I would rate PRA as five out of 10.

It is used for server access. I am using the latest version. Initially, I started with 10.6, and now, I am on the latest version.

It is currently on-premises, and down the line, we will be moving to the cloud. As of now, we have physical appliances for PRA. We do have plans to move the cloud. We've added two more servers at our end, and they will be moved to the cloud. 

Our client was using a different product, and they were not able to manage some critical parts. So, they started looking for a replacement, and they found BeyondTrust. As soon as they brought in this product, it was a very easy configuration. Implementing this product was very easy. It doesn't require much. It is very simple, and we can implement it in a week or two, which is what I like about BeyondTrust. It takes much longer to bring in other products. It is also very easy to bring privileged accounts into the product. It is much easier to do management and operational tasks as compared to other solutions.

It is very simple. You just open the URL, and you'll be able to see all your servers. Previously, it was a very tough task. There was either direct access or a VPN. There were a lot of restrictions for connecting to the VPN. There were also some other restrictions to access other products, such as if they want to go for SSO and other things. BeyondTrust is very easy. The users can open a URL, and they will be able to see all their servers. It is very easy for the users, and we are getting very good feedback from the users as well. Previously, there were multiple steps to connect, and now, there is only one step to connect to the servers remotely.

It is a very secure product, which is very important for us. For example, there are 5 to 10 users of an application, and everybody has access to a different machine. With this product, we can easily do segregation of duties and segregation of the server connectivity. Everybody is able to see the servers, but only those people who have access will be able to log into a server with a single click. It is a great tool, and everything has improved over here. Until now, we haven't faced any issues with this product. It is very simple and secure.

We use the vault for service account management. All the passwords and all the credentials get vaulted. In the PRA console, users can select the correct credential and log in. They don't have to know or see the actual password. Whenever a privileged account is managed by a PAM solution, there is a connector between the PRA solution and the PAM solution. This connector gets the credentials and injects them without any manual intervention. Other solutions also have this feature, but in BeyondTrust, it is very simple and different. The connector does all the work in the background.

It does good discovery. When we are trying to pull the local accounts, every local account is visible in the scanned report, and we can easily identify that this is a local account. We'll also be able to get a list of the domain accounts parallelly. There is a clear set of data indicating whether an account is a domain account or a local account. For cross verification, we also check with the application team whether these accounts are domain accounts or local accounts. The scanner works very well for us.

We can bring all kinds of accounts into the solution. Most products target privileged accounts or the accounts with privileged access. With this product, you can segregate a privileged account, a local account, and a normal account or a user account with the least privilege. All these accounts can be brought into the solution.

Through the use of PRA, there is no need to share passwords with users. There is no password sharing. Everything is vaulted. There are two types of integration in PRA. One is with the privileged accounts that are already managed by the PAM solution. The other one is with the least privileged accounts, such as a local account or a test account. Those accounts will be managed by the end-users. If I have the access to the privileged account, my password will be injected from the other solution by using the connector from PAM to PRA. If I have a local account on a test server or a development environment, the connection will be initiated from the PRA solution, and it'll be encrypted and monitored. All other features will also be there. I only have to key in the password.

We use the solution to provide access to third-party vendors. We can't create an AD account or some other account for the vendors in my organization because of some security and violation concerns. With the PRA solution, it is very easy. I can just add or create an account, and I can map this account only for the PRA solution. Whenever they log in, all the sessions are recorded. In case of any violation or issue, I have the recorded session. I can go and check what happened to the server. This way, it helps the vendors a lot, and a vendor doesn't need my intervention whenever they want to log in, even if he is in a different timezone. Previously, I had to be available for the session. I used to share the session via some other third-party platform, such as Teams or Skype, and my availability was very important. If I close the session, the session would get closed for them too.

It offers SSO authentication. We have multi-factor authentication, and we have RADIUS and other authentications. Multi-factor authentication is mandatory across any application or any URL.

In terms of session auditing and monitoring of third-party and remote work access, I have worked with another solution that was only for privileged accounts or privileged servers. PRA can be used for both privileged accounts and non-privileged accounts in the development environment. All transactions or accesses get checked and recorded. So, it is very easy for an administrator to manage the solution across the organization.

When it comes to the Privileged Remote Access (PRA) solution, instead of depending on a VPN client, from Cisco or any other vendor, we can directly use this product from the internet. It is very easy to do the implementation, and it is easy for every user to access the server from outside of their organization. They can open the URL and put their name and password, and it'll do the multi-factor authentication. They can easily access the server. Prior to this solution, the users had to log into the VPN, which is not required with BeyondTrust. Now, they can use their computer over the internet. In Privileged Access Management (PAM), the AD bridging feature where you can bring all your Linux boxes into the tool is an important feature.

I have been using this solution for close to three years.

Its stability is good.

Its scalability is very good. It makes things easier for the end-users.

I am an administrator of the PRA here. All the users in my organization are using this. There are more than 900 users, and there are some 4,000 or 5,000 servers. It is being used on a daily basis. We are in the process of increasing its usage.

Their support is very good. As soon as we log a case, their support engineers respond and help us out. The response time depends on the severity of the case. For a severity C case, they get back in a day or two. For a severity B case, they get back within 24 hours, and for severity A case, they get back immediately. They respond and resolve the issue within defined SLAs. I would rate them an eight out of ten.

Positive

I have worked on another solution previously, which is a market leader. I wanted to get into a product that was booming in the market. I was very focused on this solution because I knew this is going to be a market leader in the coming days. I was going through some articles on the internet, and suddenly, I got the opportunity in my company to work with BeyondTrust. I was very happy to get into this. It is working very well.

I was not a part of the complete deployment. When I joined this organization, deployment was already done. Some fine-tuning was happening, and I was part of that. It took about two weeks to fine-tune it based on the requirements, and that's all.

Overall, its setup is very simple. It would take us a week or two to bring other solutions into the organization, but we can bring in this solution within a week. We can easily bring 10 to 20 servers into the product.

For its implementation, probably there was someone who helped us remotely.

I have got a very good impression of BeyondTrust. It is a very good and booming product across the globe. I have been using this solution for close to three years, and I am still learning about its full capability. There is a lot to be explored.

They provide a lot of updates, and I am able to see a lot of fine-tuning happening. We can bring our own tool, and if we have an RDP tool, that can also be integrated. They are adding many features related to reporting, connectivity, and stabilization of connectivity. They are improving their product in every aspect.

BeyondTrust has many products such as PAM and PRA. AD bridging is also there. Specifically, with the PRA, you can ignore VPN. You don't have to pay for a license for the VPN. You can use this product.

All servers, with privileged activities as well as those without privileged activities, are assets of the organization. They all also should be monitored and should be in the control of the organization. PRA is helpful there because you can also onboard the least privileged servers. This helps a lot because everything is recorded and monitored. The management will have a crystal clear report about who accessed them and for what. Everything will be very clear.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. It makes the life of end-users easier.

The help desk utilizes it for basic end-user support to make sure they can get something installed or just walk through an issue with an end-user. I use it a lot for helping other admins to fix servers.

Our RPA team also uses it. They basically have virtual desktops that have a script running on them constantly to move data from one location to another manually. They get in, and they use it to manage 50 different desktops for that team. So, three team members manage those 50 clients just to make sure that they're processing all the data correctly throughout the day.

We have a cloud solution. The virtual server is in the cloud, and then it installs the client down to all of our desktops. From there, the ones that utilize it install the admin client on their machines.

We have 20 accounts in there that are utilizing the solution, but not all of them are active at the same time. Throughout the day, all 20 of those may go in. They do what they need to do and then drop out of it to free up a license.

It provides us the ability to get an end-user back up and running and keep them running efficiently. We can fix something usually within hours, instead of a half a day to three days. They don't have to pack their stuff up, come into the office, and hand it to us to work on it. We're able to truly just sit there with them and help them get their issues resolved. It keeps our business moving.

It saves time. Without it, the RPA team would need all of those desktops in a physical format sitting in their office, and they would have to be on them 100%. Their time savings alone probably is man-days. They are not just saving hours per week. For the RPA team, I can't even begin to give the time and the amount of work this product saves. For the help desk and the rest of the tier-two support, it probably saves 2 hours a day for each member. There are roughly 10 of us, which is 20 hours a day of time savings of workload.

It is important for us that it does not require a VPN. Now that half of our people are remote, our data lives on OneDrive or Microsoft SharePoint. They don't need to be remoted into us through a VPN to be able to get everything. When we remote in, it is nice to not have to worry about whether they are on a VPN because for any number of reasons, they might not be able to get into the VPN, such as our VPN is down or the Dallas office is messing up. So, this flexibility gives us more options, and we like that.

Its security is very tight. I'm the one who manages who can use the software to remote into other machines. In my opinion, it is more powerful than what we need, and I am glad that it is because it gives me room to grow our teams to allow them to do more if they need to or restrict some to only do certain things if they don't need as many privileges whenever they go in.

It is available in multiple formats: as a physical and virtual appliance, or as SaaS. It is very important to have it accessible in multiple ways, whether it be on-prem or SaaS. It allows me to know that if my solution goes down, in a short period of time, I can get somebody to help me get something back up and running.

We can truly elevate our admin rights while we're in there to fully take control of a system and manage it as if it was sitting right here on our desk. Most of the organization has gone to remote work or work from home. With that being the case, this solution allows us to be able to still work with our end-users, even though they're not always sitting on our network.

Its management is through two different portals, and you can't get from one portal to the other. I have to literally open up another website and go into it a different way. There are no inner links between the two. They should interlink the actual virtual server and the appliance. In general, there should be one interface for management for admins.

I have been using this solution for close to seven or eight years. I have used it in two different companies. In my current company, we've been using it for a good long time. I don't remember when they originally started using the product. It was before I came on board, but I have been using it here for four years, and I've been the admin on it for a year. The previous admin left the company. So, I took over because I had the most experience.

It doesn't go down. The only time it goes down is whenever I tell it to go down. When I need to do some updates, it requires scheduling and taking it down, but the updates are user-friendly. It is time-consuming, and I can't schedule it. The way it is set up currently, I'm not able to just say, "Hey, do this at this time," and know that it is going to get done. I have to actually be involved with it. I am not sure if it is because of our setup or BeyondTrust. I haven't had enough training to know for sure if that's possible or not.

I have used their support. Every time I've used it, they have been very useful and beneficial. It has not been one of those things where I've felt I needed to spend the resources to see if they could walk me through setting it up. I used their support only a handful of times in both companies. In the past four years, I've only used them three times because the product is solid. I would rate their support a 10 out of 10.

Positive

I have used another solution. There is a night and day difference. Whenever
BeyondTrust is installed, it works, whereas the other one didn't work half the time. The BeyondTrust solution is absolutely reliable. If anybody ever asks me for remote access software for corporate-wide usage, this is what I'd tell them to go with.

I have not been a part of its deployment. In both organizations, it had already been deployed, but I know it was pretty straightforward. I've talked to the admins for both companies because I've always enjoyed this product. I just always wanted to know more about it, and both of them said, "It was one of the easiest." Working with BeyondTrust or Bomgar was super intuitive, user-friendly, and streamlined whenever they were setting up the product.

I wish it was a little bit cheaper, but when a product is as solid as this, I understand what the cost does. It helps them to make sure it stays that way. If you want a reliable, solid product, you're going to pay more.

I am testing the Vault for service account management, but the problem with it is that the admin credentials on local machines are randomly generated on a randomly generated timeframe. So, the Vault password can't be saved. Every machine is different, and the only way to get that password is to go into another portal, which is frustrating. It is not Bomgar's or BeyondTrust's issue. It is the way we chose to manage that particular account. I'm one of the only ones who utilize it, and I utilize it mainly for testing. If we had a full PAM or our PAM was truly integrated and was BeyondTrust's PAM solution, it would elevate our use of the Vault more, but I am glad that it is there. It allows me to save some passwords that I don't utilize on a regular basis. I don't have to remember those, and I don't have to keep them at multiple different locations. I can just put them there, and I don't have to worry about it. They're safe. They're secure, and they're easy to just have. The system pushes them through. So, I don't even see them anymore. So, it is double secure in my opinion because I don't have to even see the password to remember to type that in somewhere. It just puts it in for me. I appreciate that from the security side.

It hasn't had an effect on our network security outside of we had to open a couple of ports when remote happened so that the software gets installed correctly. It wasn't something concerning. It is truly a benefit in the long run.

When compared with some competitive products that are add-ons to PAM solutions, it is important that PRA stands on its own as a full solution. It needs to be its own solution but also interlink with other solutions. 

We don't use the solution to provide access to third-party vendors. It also offers SSO authentication, but I wish it worked with our solution.

I know we can do session auditing and monitoring of third-party and remote-worker access, but we just haven't used the capability. We have also not used audio integration during a remote session.

I would rate it a 10 out of 10.

I am in the energy sector. The solution is primarily used for something called interactive remote access. We have a secure environment where we manage the energy grid. The BeyondTrust PRA solution helps us meet a compliance requirement since we need to establish a protocol break before we start working on the electrical grid. Therefore, we don't have to walk into the room where the stuff is. It can be remotely accessed for us internally for the most part.

Right now, it is in the NERC system, which is the compliance control. This has an electronic access control system that allows us to get to our stuff. It also allows our vendors to possibly get to our stuff.

I use the tool everyday. I am logged into it right now. It allows me to do my job. I know that I am using the right thing, looking at who goes into what. If somebody needs help with a secure site, I can usually hop and help them, then it is done. It is very good and flexible. It allows me to do my job quite well.

Having a single point of getting anywhere running through its box is like another firewall. It is controlling all access to our secure network so nothing else can get through. Outside of the firewall, it is our network security. 

It is a real fortress. Its security is very strong. Multi-factor came as a feature out-of-the-box, which was big for us. That helps us meet another compliance requirement. It enforces encryption. Nobody can see what we are doing in our remote system if they happen to be listening for unencrypted traffic. That is its biggest strength.

Having a VPN just means maintenance. I have worked in the industry for around 10 years and have never enjoyed really working on anything requiring a VPN, either working over it or supporting it. As far as IT is concerned, it is no longer a great technology. We like how this solution uses a protocol that enforces encryption right away, like HTTPS. So, the solution is good to go and takes out one of the moving parts, since VPN can get quite complicated.

PRA is available in multiple formats: as a physical and virtual appliance, or as SaaS. We appreciate the flexibility, though we went with the physical in our deployment. We might go to the cloud or use a virtual appliance later. Therefore, I appreciate the flexibility. However, we went with the reliable physicals.

PRA offers SSO authentication, which adds to the encryption suite. You need to have it in order for the appliance to work. It makes compliance easier.

It is too much of a fortress. It is difficult for us to report on compliance when I need to check for that device. For instance, I need to monitor what version that device is on, and it is quite complicated for us to do that. You can't connect to it traditionally and that is by design. While they have made some improvements in their API connectivity, it is just not quite what I would really like. It requires me to kind of apply some aftermarket steps in order to get what I need.

There is no connectivity to the appliance side. There is no API, and it is just difficult for me to capture what version the device is on without going in and doing screenshots. It is a little too secure in that regard, where they don't even trust their product owner. Since a lot of hacks come from the inside, they are probably doing what they need to do out of necessity. It is just that I have to work pretty hard to produce compliance data on the box.

You can usually API into something and get whatever you need. Or, you can have an SSH saying, "Do whatever you need. Just do a Git version command." There is none of that with BeyondTrust. However, this is the least of my concerns compared to whatever it grants us in freedom for all our security compliance requirements that it helps us meet.

I have been using it for three years.

The physical appliances don't have dual-power supplies. Anytime our power goes out, like even for a second, it has a lot of trouble recovering, even though we have two of them in a cluster. It has trouble recovering after a power-related event on the physical side. We know that we don't really have a redundant BeyondTrust PRA, but they would probably tell me to use a cloud or virtual appliance.

Scaling is pretty simple. We can stretch it to different operating systems, devices, and command lines. We can use it in any way that we want, either on stuff or from stuff. I am confident we can work with it for whatever needs to be done.

The technical support has been okay. There have not been too many inquiries. I have asked questions from a developer on how to connect to it and gather the compliance data and was able to get an answer, which was nice.

Positive

Some people working remotely have used TeamViewer. However, we have migrated the privileged remote access since then for our security flexibility.

We looked into this solution for its ability to meet our compliance requirement. It is one of the leaders in Interactive Remote Access. When an auditor or whomever sees the solution, they say, "Okay, you are on BeyondTrust. This should be pretty simple." Out-of-the-box, it meets a lot of requirements. We don't need to go out of our way to prove requirements because they are in the manual of the solution saying, "There is encryption." 

When the world went remote, we also looked to get off TeamViewer rather quickly and enforce users getting onto a privileged remote access solution. We wanted more control of who could come into the network as well as not be subject to a hack of TeamViewer. Now, we have everything run through our internal network instead of bouncing off Germany.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. It is simple and elegant in its design. It is pretty clear how to get things configured. There are a few quirks with getting some policies in force for particular types of workers. Once you get that down and have it working, it is a set-and-forget solution. It is not nearly as complicated as some other implementations that we have done with different apps.

It took two weeks to implement.

Instantly, we were compliant with one of the SIP standards.

It doesn't allow for multiple monitors without some extra steps. TeamViewer allows you to open a monitor in one tab and another monitor in another, then you can drag that tab to your monitors at home. Therefore, you can have a dual monitor setup at home. BeyondTrust doesn't work like that, and our users hate it. It is possible to do this with RDP technology, but next to email, RDP is one of the least secure protocols in the world. We don't really want to use that, but we have been kind of forced to lately when trying to get away from TeamViewer. That is one thing that TeamViewer has, it can tab to multi-monitor support.

PRA stands on its own as a full solution. We appreciate their presence in that realm. You will get part of what you want from TeamViewer, but you are getting quite a bit more with a PRA. You can roll it out via on-prem, cloud, or virtual. You control a lot more of it, controlling what people do. Whereas, with TeamViewer, that is so much more difficult. 

I am considering a cheaper competitor since that is what we moved over from. However, I don't think that we have really looked at many other vendors for this since I have exactly what I need from BeyondTrust.

We are monitoring vendor sessions. We will probably start monitoring our own so we can use it to see what happens in regards to a security incident. We can also go back and use it for troubleshooting or see exactly what somebody did inside of their remote session. At some point, we look forward to turning on the session recording. We just hadn't done it yet, not for internal staff.

There is no unattended remote access for vendors that I am aware of, but we know that we can use the solution to do that. Some have done that in the past. We just don't do it all the time and probably not in the last year.

My usage of the solution is primarily in the secure network. I don't have any kinds of sounds that I really need to listen to.

It is hard for us to roll so much trust into one thing at a time, because what happens when that thing is gone? You need to have an adequate backup plan, and we have not quite gone that far yet.

We have an audit coming up this year, because of that it is hard to really decide to do anything new. We kind of have been told, "Hey, stop getting new stuff. You have to get through the audit first."

I would rate PRA as 10 out of 10.

My company uses BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access for privileged access management to facilitate the management of RDP sessions and the rotation of credentials or passwords.

The most valuable features of the solution are the seamless features that allow you to use the password without manually copying it while also providing it in a clear format. The solution's feature injects the password directly into the application you use.

The integration of the solution with many platforms is a difficult area to manage and needs to be made easy. For example, I don't think BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access works with products from Sophos.

I have been using BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access for around three months. My company has a partnership with BeyondTrust.

It is a stable tool. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight to eight and a half out of ten.

In my company, there are less than ten users of the solution. I have dealt with my company's clients, with more than five hundred people working with the product.

The solution can be used in small and enterprise-sized businesses.

Based on the feedback from my colleagues who have never complained about the technical support, I would say that the product's support team is good.

BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access is one of the easiest products to deploy.

The solution is deployed mainly on virtual appliances.

I rate the product's pricing a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is high, and ten is low. It is an expensive product.

I have only compared BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access with Delinea Secret Server till now. From a technical standpoint, Delinea has more features. From a practical point of view, I think BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access is easier to manage and deploy. I haven't worked with Delinea to be able to give an elaborate opinion about it.

I rate the overall solution an eight and a half to nine out of ten.

We use the solution to give the network access to third-party vendors or remote basis employees. It helps us authenticate their credentials directly without a VPN connection.

The solution has the best screen-sharing feature. We can invite external vendors without exposing any credentials or network access to them using it.

The solution's access process for third-party vendors needs to be simplified. It should eliminate the process of installing client applications on users' machines for better security. Instead, we can publish a URL link for them. Also, its web interface needs enhancement as well.

We have been using the solution for four years.

It is a stable solution. I rate its stability an eight out of ten.

The solution's scalability is a five or six out of ten.

The solution's technical support is good. Whenever we raise any case, they try to solve it as soon as possible.

Positive

The solution's initial setup process is straightforward. It is developed and managed by BeyondTrust itself. They provide us with the virtual appliance, and we ask the customer to deploy that profile on their server. Once the appliance is deployed, we can access the URL and start with the initial configuration. Further, it integrates with the active directory and the customer's NTP server to configure two-factor authentication. The users can easily enable it for their IDs by scanning the QR code using any authenticator app or mobile device.

I advise others to use BeyondTrust if they have an existing PAM solution. It will help them with seamless access to privileged accounts and credentials. I rate the solution a seven out of ten.