Privileged Access Management
Eliminate VPNs and Bastions
Identity is the perimeter. Ditch the VPNs & bastions.
VPNs and bastions were designed for a network-centric world. Teleport delivers location-independent, identity-based access — zero trust for every engineer, every resource, every environment, eliminating VPN complexity and bastion overhead.
WHY VPNS AND BASTIONS ARE HOLDING YOUR TEAM BACK
Reduce the blast radius with full zero trust, not network segmentation.
VPNs and bastions put the perimeter at the network. When that perimeter is breached, nothing stops lateral movement. Teleport puts the perimeter at the identity — every connection authenticated and authorized, limiting the blast radius.
Capability |  | Without Teleport |
|---|---|---|
Security model | Identity perimeter — every connection authenticated, authorized, and attributed | Network perimeter — implicit trust once inside the network |
Access granularity | Resource-level — access scoped to specific servers, clusters, databases, and APIs | IP-based — broad network access with no resource-level control |
Lateral movement | No lateral movement — each connection is a separate identity-verified request | Once inside, attackers move freely across the network |
Session visibility | Full session recording and identity attribution for every connection | No record of who accessed what inside the network |
Operational overhead | Centralized policy — one place to manage access across every environment | Duplicate RBAC, VPN configuration, firewall rules, bastion maintenance |
Audit | Every action attributed to a real identity — compliance-ready by default | Access tracked by IP — impossible to attribute actions to individuals |
OUTCOMES
Improved security posture. Lower complexity.
Eliminate VPN Complexity
0
VPNs, bastions, or port forwarding required to access resources
0
DNS reconfiguration needed with Teleport VNet
Reduce Attack Surface
Low
lateral movement risk — no standing privileges
0
implicit trust granted after authentication
Cut Operational Overhead
80%
less time spent configuring access, firewall rules, and bastions
0
duplicate RBAC configurations across VPN and application layers
TELEPORT VNET
A VPN experience without the VPN.
Teleport VNet intercepts DNS requests for any TCP application or SSH server available through Teleport, proxies connections through Teleport's identity and access controls, and handles authentication transparently.
No internal IPs, domain name reconfigurations, or DNS entries to maintain.
ZERO TRUST ACCESS
Zero trust principles for every connection.
Teleport enforces zero trust principles for every infrastructure access event. Every request is authenticated with cryptographic identity, granted short-lived privileges that expire, and recorded in session recordings, eliminating implicit trust or broad network access.
The same controls apply whether an engineer is in the office, at home, or connecting from a new region, and for both users and workloads.
UNIFIED ACCESS AND AUDIT
Reduce overhead of managing fleets.
VPNs force security teams to maintain duplicate RBAC logic — once in the VPN, again in applications, and across fleets.
Teleport centralizes access policy and audit in a single layer, reducing misconfiguration risk and giving security teams a complete record of who accessed what, when, and why across every resource, protocol, and environment — simplifying fleet management and reducing configuration overhead.
Ready to Teleport?
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are VPNs and bastions insufficient for modern infrastructure security?
VPNs and bastions establish a network perimeter - once a user authenticates, they gain broad access to everything inside, with no resource-level controls and no session-level visibility. This creates significant lateral movement risk: a compromised credential inside the VPN gives an attacker the same reach as a legitimate engineer. Bastions add maintenance overhead without solving the root problem, and neither model produces an audit trail that attributes actions to real identities. As infrastructure moves to multi-cloud, ephemeral, and containerized environments, IP-based access controls become increasingly unworkable.
What does "identity is the perimeter" mean in practice?
Rather than trusting everything inside a network boundary, Teleport puts the authorization check at the identity layer. Every connection is authenticated with a short-lived cryptographic certificate, authorized against role-based policy, and attributed to a verified identity before it reaches any resource. Access is scoped to a specific server, database, Kubernetes cluster, or internal application - not a broad network segment - so a compromised session is contained to a single resource rather than propagating across the environment. The same controls apply whether an engineer is in the office, at home, or connecting from a new region.
How does Teleport replace VPN functionality without requiring one?
Teleport VNet intercepts DNS requests for any TCP application or SSH server enrolled in Teleport and proxies connections through Teleport's identity and access controls, handling authentication transparently in the background. Engineers get the same connectivity experience as a VPN - accessing internal services by hostname - without internal IP management, domain reconfigurations, or DNS entries to maintain. Unlike a VPN, every connection through VNet is a separate authenticated, authorized, and recorded request.
Does replacing bastions reduce operational overhead?
Significantly. Bastions require ongoing maintenance - patching, certificate rotation, firewall rule management, and replication across regions or environments. Teleport centralizes access policy in a single control plane covering SSH, Kubernetes, databases, Windows desktops, and web applications, eliminating the need to duplicate RBAC logic across VPN configuration, firewall rules, and application-layer controls. Security teams gain a unified audit trail with full session recording and identity attribution across every resource - something bastions can't provide - while reducing access configuration overhead by 80%.
Does Teleport work across multi-cloud and hybrid environments without per-environment VPN configuration?
Yes. Teleport deploys a single control plane that spans public cloud, on-prem, and air-gapped environments. The same identity and access policies apply regardless of where the resource runs or where the engineer connects from, with no need to replicate VPN configurations or bastion hosts per environment. This also gives security teams a single, unified audit log across all infrastructure rather than fragmented, per-environment records that have to be correlated manually.
How does Teleport compare to other VPN alternatives?
Teleport is purpose-built for infrastructure access - it replaces the network perimeter model entirely rather than improving it. Tools like Tailscale make network connectivity easier using a WireGuard-based mesh, but still operate at the network layer: once a device is on the tailnet, access is defined by IP-based ACLs rather than resource-level identity controls, and there's no native session recording or identity-attributed audit trail. Teleport grants access to specific resources based on verified identity, issues short-lived certificates that expire automatically, and records every session - making it the better fit for teams that need compliance-ready audit trails alongside zero trust access. See how Teleport compares to Tailscale for a full breakdown.