Case Study: Secure VPC Access For a Hospitality Tech Company

For businesses operating across multiple cloud environments, managing secure access to Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) is no small feat. Without structured access controls, resources risk exposure, compliance becomes harder to maintain, and operational efficiency takes a hit.

This was exactly the challenge faced by a hospitality technology company in the Oceania region. As a provider of SaaS solutions that help hotels and resorts manage POS sales, operations, and payments, their infrastructure spanned several AWS and Azure VPCs. With a globally distributed, remote-first workforce, securing access without slowing down productivity became a growing concern.

The Challenge: Controlling Access Across AWS and Azure VPCs

As the company scaled, so did its workforce - and its access management headaches. Teams from different regions needed to reach specific resources across multiple cloud accounts and providers, but manual access management became increasingly complex and error-prone.

A few key problems emerged:

• Employees were granted broader access than necessary, increasing security and compliance risks.
• Teams struggled with inconsistent access experiences, often switching between different VPN servers depending on which VPC they needed to reach.
• IT was bogged down by constant permission requests, access troubleshooting, and growing concerns over lateral movement within the network.

For example, marketing team members needing access to analytics dashboards could also see backend databases on the network. Even with login credentials in place, just having these systems exposed increases the risk of unauthorized access or accidental changes to sensitive data.

It was clear the traditional VPN setup wasn’t scaling with the business.

Why Traditional VPNs Fell Short

The company’s reliance on standard VPN solutions created several limitations:

• Overly broad network access: Users were connected at the network level, with visibility into systems beyond their job scope.
• Poor user experience: Switching between VPN servers to reach different cloud environments led to frustrating delays and connection issues.
• Security gaps: Broad access increased the attack surface, making it difficult to enforce least-privilege principles.
• Administrative burden: Managing users, credentials, and policies across multiple VPN configurations consumed valuable IT resources

It became clear that a new, scalable, and security-first approach was needed.

The Solution: Zero Trust Access with UTunnel MeshConnect

To address these challenges, the company turned to UTunnel’s MeshConnect, adopting a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) approach tailored for multi-cloud environments.

With MeshConnect, they implemented:

• Granular access policies: Employees only see and access the specific resources they need - nothing more.
• Cross-cloud integration: AWS and Azure VPCs were securely linked without needing complex site-to-site tunnels or multiple VPN servers.
• Identity-based authentication: User access is synchronized with the company’s existing IP provider via SSO and SCIM, with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) adding an extra layer of protection.
• Centralized management: A single dashboard now controls policies, monitors activity, and simplifies auditing across the entire infrastructure.

How MeshConnect Works: Building a Secure Mesh Network

The company deployed lightweight MeshConnect Agents on an instance in each of their VPCs, creating an encrypted mesh network overlay. This eliminated the need for traditional VPN gateways while enabling secure, direct connections between users and the resources they are authorized to access.

Key benefits included:

• Seamless, encrypted, remote access without exposing the broader network.
• Strict segmentation of resources, preventing lateral movement within the infrastructure.
• Automated policy enforcement, adjusting permissions dynamically as teams and projects evolved.
• Visibility and control through centralized logging and reporting.

The Impact: Secure, Scalable Access with Zero Trust Principles

With MeshConnect fully deployed, the hospitality tech company experienced immediate improvements:

• Employees securely access only the resources they need from anywhere without hopping between VPN servers.
• Sensitive systems are shielded from unnecessary exposure, reducing security and compliance risks.
• IT spends less time managing access and more time focusing on higher-value work.
• Audits and compliance checks are simplified with detailed, centralized activity logs.

The Takeaway: Modern Access for Modern Cloud Infrastructure

For growing, remote-friendly businesses working across multi-cloud environments, traditional VPNs are no longer enough. They create bottlenecks, security risks, and management headaches.

With UTunnel MeshConnect, this hospitality tech company moved beyond legacy solutions, embracing a Zero Trust model that:

• Protects critical cloud resources.
• Simplifies access management.
• Scales effortlessly with business growth.

Testimonial

"UTunnel has been a game changer for us. Managing secure access across multiple cloud environments felt impossible before. Now, we have complete control and visibility without the overhead. Our teams stay productive, and we stay secure."

- Head of Infrastructure, Hospitality Tech Company

Conclusion

In today’s cloud-driven world, securing VPC access requires more than just patchwork VPNs and manual processes. It demands a smarter, more adaptive approach—and that’s exactly what UTunnel MeshConnect delivers.

If your organization is struggling with similar multi-cloud access challenges, it might be time to leave legacy VPNs behind and adopt a ZTNA-driven, mesh-based solution that balances security with simplicity.