Just over two months ago, we launched PrivX Free – a fully-featured access management gateway to multi-cloud and on-prem IT environments with a twist. The twist, of course, is that PrivX is precisely what the name promises: free.

The interest in the product has been overwhelming with the number of registered users growing day by day.

Below is a bit of a breakdown of who uses PrivX Free, what are the typical use cases and what challenges users are solving with the product.. 

Who needs privileged access

We are seeing users from all walks of modern software business and operations, including:

• IT managers
• IT admins
• System administrators
• Database administrators
• Quality Engineers
• DevOps Engineers
• Software Engineers
• Test Engineers
• Linux Administrators
• UNIX Administrators

A lot of these people fall into the category of privileged users but this breadth of usage validates our thinking that many different types of users get value from PrivX. 

Use cases galore

The variety of different setups and methods that companies and organizations use to provide access to their critical IT infra is a veritable smorgasbord of technologies, both old and new:

• SSH keys
• Jump hosts
• Jump servers
• Bastion hosts
• In-house authorization and access management tools
• Privileged credentials managed in an Excel sheet
• Shared accounts
• 3rd party access management
• Multi-cloud, on-premises and hybrid access using proprietary tools (AWS, Azure, GoogleCloud, OpenStack)
• All manner of privileged access management solutions
• Leveraging IAM/directory solutions to extend access to cover privileged users though LDAP, Google G Suite, Microsoft AD, OpenID

We are happy to report that PrivX Free has been used to replace all of these existing technologies.

As a marketing person, the breadth of usage makes me happy: that one solution can be applied to such a great variety of use cases, and address so many problems that are often created by legacy technology and paradigms…it just feels good! This also validates our mission, which is to provide secure remote access solutions that simplify and automate.

The solution to many a challenge

Most PrivX Free users probably face similar types of challenges:

• Need to improve and automate credential and password management
• More fine-grained access and authorization management is required
• Unified access to multi-cloud and hybrid environments is needed to unlock productivity
• Subcontractor access management is a royal pain in you-know-what

These trends are also visible in the Google search data and related topics: people are increasingly researching these topics. We also see that people look for solutions that are easy to use and that shield users from all the complexity in access management. Instead, getting just-in-time access for the right amount of time with the right amount of privilege with just one puts a smile on their faces. 

Time flies, Doesn't Seem a Minute

Depending on your context, time is either an ally or an enemy.

When you want to access something, you need that access right then and there. One of the critical reasons why freelance developers, IT managers, and DevOps engineers are interested in PrivX Free is the desire to save time.

PrivX Free comes with an extensive list of features, but the ability to provide secure access at the speed of business (and the cloud) is one of its most compelling benefits. Saving time is both saving money and giving more time for something more valuable (and entertaining) than manually handling access routines.

New Use Cases – Invented by Our Customers

One of the coolest use cases that we heard of – one didn’t think of ourselves - was one developer using the recorded sessions for billing purposes and also to have a reliable audit trail if there are misconfigurations or bugs in the customer network they work with.

Customers are smart: if the product allows it, they will come up with uses that surprise you positively!

It's Free, No Credit Card Required

Seriously: PrivX Free is free for life. We do not require a credit card.

You owe it to yourself to go ahead and install PrivX Free and see how it works and helps you in your daily work. Installation only takes half an hour of your time, and the payback is very fast indeed.

Alternatively, you can sign up for the PrivX test drive – it’s the full product in a browser!