Access Server Link from OpenVPN Delivers the Fastest, Simplest Path to Self-Hosted Zero Trust Access Across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud

PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OpenVPN Inc., the number one-ranked business VPN and ZTNA solution on G2, announced today the release of Access Server Link. Combined with OpenVPN’s native Zero Trust application brokering, Access Server Link gives IT and security teams SaaS-level simplicity and cloud-scale performance across the major hyperscalers — without ever surrendering control of their data and control plane.

”We wanted spinning up a self-hosted ZTNA solution to feel like a managed service without becoming one,” says Rohit Kalbag, OpenVPN’s Vice President of Go-to-Market. “You deploy into your own AWS, GCP, or Azure environment, manage it from our portal instead of over SSH, and we handle the domain and SSL certificate that typically slow teams down on day one — all while your configuration and traffic stay entirely on the instance you control."

As organizations move more infrastructure into Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), securing access to those environments has become both mission-critical and operationally heavy. Cloud-delivered security services can simplify management, but they route sensitive traffic through vendor infrastructure.

Legacy self-hosted VPNs preserve data ownership, but have historically demanded SSH access, manual DNS work, complex access control using IP addresses, and certificate management to stand up and maintain. Access Server erases that trade-off: the sovereignty of self-hosting with the operational ease and application-level Zero Trust teams require.

Instead of SSH sessions, manual DNS configuration, and SSL certificate management, administrators complete a guided, browser-based setup that requires only three inputs — hostname, cloud provider and region, and an admin password — with DNS and SSL certificates preconfigured. Deployment runs through preconfigured templates on AWS, Azure, and GCP, and most administrators are operational within minutes. Configuration and logs stay on the server, and tunnel traffic flows directly between users and the organization's own server — not through OpenVPN's infrastructure — preserving the data ownership and compliance posture (including HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR) that regulated organizations require.

Further, Access Server’s Zero Trust Application Broker verifies each user's and device's identity and location, then mediates the traffic using a placeholder IP address scoped to a single authorized application, configured simply by domain name. The user connects to the app they are entitled to and nothing else; they never learn the destination's real address and have no path to anything beyond it. Lateral movement isn't merely limited — it is structurally impossible, because the connectivity a breach would need never exists.

“With Access Server, access is granted per application, per identity, and enforced by design rather than by policy alone,” says Kalbag. “Because entitlements are defined by hostname rather than IP address, they survive cloud migrations, load-balancer changes, and autoscaling across AWS, Azure, and GCP without manual rework — all while adhering to the principle of least privilege."

Key Benefits of Access Server Link and Application Broker:

• No more expired-certificate outages — SSL certificates provisioned and renewed automatically
• No browser security warnings — CA-signed certs replace self-signed ones
• Stay online through IP changes — IP changes detected, domain updated automatically
• Zero Trust by design, configured with application domain names, making lateral movement impossible

Access Server deployment using Access Server Link is available now from Access Server Hub. Sign up at openvpn.net to get started for free.

About OpenVPN

OpenVPN's network security platforms provide secure remote access through both self-hosted, and cloud-delivered VPN solutions for business with the core tenets of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). Built on the high-performance, open-source OpenVPN protocol, OpenVPN’s business solutions, Access Server and CloudConnexa®, help teams securely access company resources, SaaS platforms, the web, and data via cloud environments (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.). With nearly 20,000 business customers, OpenVPN is trusted for security, speed, and simplicity.