Case Study - Flexible Access Control for a Sales Tech Startup

For growing startups with remote teams and cloud-based infrastructure, secure access control often becomes complex as the company scales. Managing who can access what and from where becomes a challenge.

That’s what a European sales tech startup experienced while building tools to help sales teams manage outbound calls, workflows, and performance. With a distributed team and infrastructure hosted on DigitalOcean across multiple regions, they needed a better way to control access to internal tools and servers without slowing down operations.

The Challenge: Managing Access Without Slowing Down Teams

The company used DigitalOcean as its cloud provider, with five UTunnel Access Gateway servers—four located in Frankfurt and one in Amsterdam. Each server was associated with specific user groups, ensuring that different departments, such as engineering, operations, and customer support, only accessed the services they needed.

As their team expanded, they faced a common set of issues:

• Different users needed access to different backend systems based on their role and region.
• Manual management of access permissions became tedious and error-prone.
• Some applications didn’t require full VPN access but still needed to be protected behind a secure layer.

Why a Standard VPN Setup Wasn’t Enough

Although a traditional VPN helped provide encrypted access to backend systems, several challenges persisted:

• Overhead in managing user access across multiple servers manually.
• Need for flexible access options—not all users needed persistent VPN access.
• Limited visibility into who accessed what, and when, especially for internal apps.

They needed a VPN solution that could grow with them and offer more than just basic connectivity.

The Solution: UTunnel Access Gateway + OneClick Access

The startup deployed UTunnel’s Access Gateway across their infrastructure, leveraging its cloud-integrated deployment with DigitalOcean. Each VPN gateway served a specific set of users, providing secure and role-based network access.

To support access to internal web-based apps—like dashboards, CRMs, and monitoring tools—they also activated UTunnel’s OneClick Access: a secure, agentless Zero Trust Application Access feature.
Here’s how it worked for them:

• Controlled VPN access: Users were assigned to specific gateways based on team and geography.
• OneClick access to internal apps: Non-technical team members accessed protected apps via their browser, without needing to install a VPN client.
• Role-based permissions: Only authorized users could see and interact with assigned resources, whether over VPN or via OneClick.
• Centralized control: Admins used UTunnel’s dashboard to manage both VPN and application access from a single place.

The Results: Secure Access Without the Complexity

With the combined power of Access Gateway and OneClick Access, the startup achieved:

• Segmented access per user group—reducing exposure and ensuring least-privilege access.
• Smooth access to internal tools—sales and support staff used browser-based OneClick Access, avoiding VPN client setup.
• Improved access management—adding or removing users was quick, with clear visibility into what resources each person could access.
• Fewer support tickets—technical teams reported fewer interruptions and smoother access experiences.

The Takeaway: A Practical VPN Solution With Added Flexibility

Startups need more than just a basic VPN—they need a solution that adapts to their teams, tools, and workflows. With UTunnel Access Gateway and OneClick Access, this sales tech company now has:

• Secure, flexible access across the board
• VPN and agentless application access work in tandem
• Centralized management without extra complexity

Testimonial

"UTunnel gives us the control and flexibility we need. Our tech teams use VPN, while others get secure app access without even installing a client. It’s just the right fit."

— Technical Operations Manager, Sales Tech Startup

Conclusion

UTunnel Access Gateway, combined with OneClick Access, provides a practical and scalable approach to secure access, perfect for modern, fast-moving teams. Whether you need full VPN connectivity or browser-based application access, UTunnel makes it easy to stay secure and productive.