Teleport is a zero-trust access platform designed to provide secure, identity-based connectivity to servers, databases, and Kubernetes clusters. It functions as a centralized gateway that replaces static credentials with short-lived, identity-bound cryptographic certificates, effectively eliminating the need for traditional VPNs and long-term secret exposure.
The platform distinguishes itself by orchestrating access through a unified control plane that maps external identity provider claims to granular, role-based infrastructure permissions. It enforces security through mutual TLS gateways and identity-aware proxies, ensuring that every interaction is authenticated, authorized, and recorded. By automating the lifecycle of ephemeral credentials and providing comprehensive session recording, it enables organizations to maintain a searchable audit trail across heterogeneous, multi-cloud, and on-premises environments.
Beyond core connectivity, the system provides extensive tooling for infrastructure governance, including automated access request workflows, device trust verification, and machine identity management for automated workloads. It supports broad observability through real-time audit event streaming, risk analysis, and health monitoring, ensuring consistent security policies are applied to both human users and autonomous agents.
The platform is deployed via lightweight access agents installed on remote resources, which establish secure outbound connections to the management cluster to bypass complex network configurations.
