Author: Roman Arutyunov, Co-Founder and SVP Products, Xage Security
The rise of AI has transformed data centers into far more than hubs for corporate data and enterprise applications. They now also power AI workloads, large language models (LLMs), and large-scale analytics and automation. These new capabilities demand a larger physical footprint, complete with expanded power and cooling infrastructure. But with greater scale and higher-stakes operations comes a larger attack surface and juicier targets, giving malicious actors more incentives and opportunities to exploit weaknesses.
Protecting today’s data centers requires more than yesterday’s tools. Disjointed solutions like VPNs, siloed PAM, weak MFA, and patchwork segmentation only add complexity, create gaps, and fail to scale with the explosive growth of modern environments. They leave organizations exposed to insider misuse, ransomware, data leakage, and the emerging wave of AI-driven attacks. Securing the modern data center demands a unified, identity-driven approach, where every entitlement is carefully controlled across both digital and cyber-physical infrastructure. It’s time to rethink data center security.
An Identity-First Approach to Protection
In today’s data center, every user, machine, application, and AI agent is both an access point and a potential attack vector. Without unique identities, organizations cannot enforce granular policies or control actions, leaving them exposed to lateral movement, privilege escalation, and data exfiltration.
Assigning an identity to everything changes the game. It enables least-privilege, just-in-time access across the full stack. Every interaction—whether from a human administrator, a cooling system controller, a machine-learning pipeline, or an AI agent—is authenticated, authorized, and logged. This eliminates standing privileges, closes gaps left by network-based defenses, and enforces granular, policy-driven controls.
Equally important, identity-first security creates accountability and visibility. When every action is tied to an identity, organizations gain visibility into who (or what) did what, when, and where. This transparency accelerates incident response and strengthens compliance with standards such as NIST, ISO27001, SOC 2, NIS2, and NERC-CIP.
In short, identity transforms a porous perimeter into a unified Zero Trust fabric, where access is never assumed and always verified. But achieving this level of protection requires more than point products stitched together—it demands a holistic approach.
That’s where Xage comes in.
A Platform for Full-Stack Protection
Purpose-built for modern, distributed environments, the Xage Fabric applies Zero Trust consistently across every layer of the data center. Unlike legacy tools that protect only fragments of the stack, Xage unifies identity-first security for applications, infrastructure, and cyber-physical systems into one cohesive platform. The result is end-to-end coverage that eliminates silos, reduces operational complexity, and ensures resilience even in disconnected or high-risk conditions.
With this foundation in place, organizations can take advantage of Xage’s unique offerings, which address the most pressing security challenges of today’s data centers:
Securing AI Workloads
AI has redefined how data centers are used—and how they are attacked. Xage extends Zero Trust protection directly to LLMs and AI agents, controlling access to data at the protocol level and enforcing safe interactions across Agent2Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) exchanges. Policy guardrails prevent jailbreaks, prompt injections, and data leakage, while comprehensive auditing ensures governance across every AI interaction. The result is a jailbreak-proof AI layer that allows enterprises to innovate confidently and responsibly.
Reinventing Privileged Access
Standing privileges and always-on accounts have become one of the biggest liabilities in data center security. With Extended Privileged Access Management (XPAM), Xage replaces them with just-in-time, session-based credentials and a quantum-resistant vault for secure storage. Automated credential rotation, unified policy enforcement, and full visual session recording reduce insider risk and accelerate compliance—delivering resilience without adding administrative burden.
Modernizing Remote Access
VPNs and endpoint agents no longer meet the needs of today’s distributed workforce. Xage enables agentless, browser-based secure remote access that isolates user sessions from sensitive systems while still supporting native tools like PuTTY and database clients. Its multi-hop Zero Trust Network Access architecture enforces segmentation across zones, ensuring secure, seamless connectivity for employees, contractors, and vendors alike.
Protecting Critical Infrastructure
Finally, Xage extends Zero Trust to the cyber-physical systems that keep data centers running—DCIM, BMS, PDUs, and cooling. Policy-driven segmentation and virtual patching protect cyber-physical assets from exploitation. Vendor access is tightly controlled and automatically revoked when no longer needed. Even in air-gapped environments, enforcement continues without interruption, ensuring continuous protection of mission-critical assets.
Together, these capabilities form a single, unified platform that enables organizations to scale securely, comply with confidence, and protect their most valuable operations without compromise.
Customer Spotlight: Kinder Morgan
To see the impact of this approach in action, consider how Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America, used the Xage Fabric to modernize and secure its data center access.
One of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America, Kinder Morgan operates roughly 82,000 miles of pipelines and transports about 40% of the natural gas consumed in the United States. After successfully using Xage to secure its OT systems, Kinder Morgan turned to the Xage Fabric to modernize access to its extensive data center environment.
Historically, server administrators relied on remote connections that lacked granular controls, leaving the company vulnerable to advanced cyber threats. With more users requiring access and more diverse workloads running in their data centers, the risk of overprivileged access and credential misuse was increasing.
By deploying Xage, Kinder Morgan introduced multi-layer Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), just-in-time, and just-enough access across its IT infrastructure. This shift eliminated static priviledges, reduced the attack surface, and enabled a unified Zero Trust model spanning both IT and OT systems. The results were measurable: fewer cybersecurity incidents, faster resolution times, and a more streamlined access experience for daily users. Server administrators, AI/ML operators, and data scientists benefitted from a secure “click-to-login” workflow that boosted productivity without sacrificing security
Securing the Future of the Data Center
The modern data center has become the backbone of innovation, powering everything from AI-driven workloads to mission-critical IT applications. Yet with this growth comes an ever-expanding attack surface that demands new levels of resilience and control. Traditional approaches fall short in this environment—security must now be identity-first, unified, and built on Zero Trust principles.
Xage delivers precisely that, transforming fragmented defenses into a full-stack security Fabric that protects every interaction, whether it comes from a human user, a machine, or an AI agent. The experience of customers like Kinder Morgan illustrates the tangible impact: stronger protection, streamlined operations, and accelerated Zero Trust adoption across both IT and OT.
For organizations ready to learn more, the Unified Zero Trust for Data Centers and IT solution brief provides a deeper look at how Xage hardens the attack surface, enforces least-privilege access, and simplifies compliance across digital workloads and critical infrastructure.
As enterprises continue to scale their AI and data center operations, the need for comprehensive, end-to-end security will only intensify. With Xage, organizations can safeguard their most critical infrastructure and embrace the future with confidence.
