Add Access Gate to the firewall you already have.
Access Gate connects to your existing firewall. It adds identity-based segmentation, OT visibility and Zero Trust access control. No recabling, no downtime and no firewall replacement.
Firewalls were not built to segment OT.
Traditional firewalls handle perimeter security well, but they struggle with east-west traffic inside OT networks. They lack native awareness of industrial protocols, require inline deployment with network redesign, and enforce rules based on IP addresses and ports rather than user identity. Segmenting a flat OT network with firewalls means recabling, downtime, and months of planning.
Access Gate works beside your firewall.
Access Gate is an appliance that connects to your existing network and adds an overlay on top of it. It works with your firewall and switches without replacing them. You get identity-based policies, OT protocol inspection and micro-segmentation, with no recabling and no production stop.
Traditional firewalls are in-line perimeter devices.
Firewalls from Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco are designed to control north-south traffic at the network perimeter. Extending them to segment internal OT networks requires deploying additional internal firewalls, reconfiguring network topology, and accepting downtime during cutover.
| Feature | Access Gate | Firewalls |
|---|---|---|
| Perimeter security | Complements existing firewall | |
| East-west segmentation | Requires internal firewalls | |
| OT protocol inspection | Native protocol awareness | Limited DPI for industrial protocols |
| Identity-based access | IP/port-based rules | |
| Deployment without recabling | Inline deployment required | |
| Zero downtime deployment | Network changes cause interruptions | |
| Asset discovery | ||
| Secure remote access | Via VPN add-on | |
| Works alongside existing infra | Overlay deployment | N/A, it is the infrastructure |
| MFA for legacy OT |
Access Gate needs no rewiring.
Access Gate connects to your existing network. No in-line placement, no cable changes and no switch reconfiguration. It is installed in a day. Your firewall keeps protecting the perimeter while Access Gate handles internal segmentation.
Access Gate adds to your firewall.
Access Gate adds what your firewall does not cover: identity-based access, OT protocol awareness and east-west segmentation. Your existing perimeter security stays in place.
Access Gate reads industrial protocols.
Access Gate natively inspects Modbus, S7, EtherNet/IP, OPC UA, and other industrial protocols. Security policies can distinguish between a read and a write command to a PLC, something traditional firewalls cannot do without specialized add-ons.
Questions about Access Gate and Firewalls.
No. Access Gate works alongside your existing firewalls. Your perimeter firewall continues to handle north-south traffic. Access Gate adds east-west segmentation, identity-based access control, and OT visibility on top of your current infrastructure.
Yes. Access Gate integrates with any existing network infrastructure, including firewalls from Palo Alto, Fortinet, Cisco, and others. It connects to your switches and operates as an overlay, so there is no conflict with existing firewall rules or network architecture.
No. Access Gate deploys without recabling and without in-line insertion. It connects to your existing network, discovers machines and then starts enforcing policies. Production keeps running throughout.
Access Gate creates software-defined micro-segments across your flat OT network. Every communication between devices is authenticated and authorized based on identity and context, not just IP addresses. This stops lateral movement even on networks where all devices share the same subnet.
Also looking at cloud security tools?
If SASE and cloud-delivered Zero Trust are also on your shortlist, our Zscaler competitors and alternatives for OT comparison sets Zscaler, Palo Alto Prisma Access, Netskope and Cloudflare side by side against the constraint that decides it on a plant floor: PLCs and HMIs that will never run an agent.
Not sure which systems to protect first? Start with how to perform a risk assessment on your OT environment, which covers asset discovery and consequence rating without active scans.