Celine Rosak, Director of Corporate Marketing & Brand, Xage Security
Accelerating Zero Trust, Enhancing Security, and Streamlining Operations
Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America, responsible for transporting about 40% of the natural gas consumed in the US. With more than 82,000 miles of pipelines powering homes, businesses, and industries, the company knows that securing its mission-critical systems is not just a priority—it’s essential to national energy reliability.
After successfully deploying Xage Security to protect its vast Operational Technology (OT) footprint, Kinder Morgan saw an opportunity to take the next step with Xage—using the solution to modernize access across its complex data center environment. This blog explores the challenges Kinder Morgan sought to overcome, the solutions that were implemented, and the results of the modernization initiative.
“After seeing the impact of Xage in our OT environment, expanding into the data center was a no-brainer. The platform had already proven itself—resilient, adaptable, and aligned with our Zero Trust strategy. We trusted Xage to deliver, and they did. We appreciate finding a partner that delivers equal expertise in both IT and OT environments.”
Mark Huse, CIO
Securing a Complex Data Center Landscape
Historically, Kinder Morgan relied on native RDP clients for remote server access, which lacked granular just-in-time controls and created unnecessary exposure to advanced cyber threats. This approach left administrators at risk of overprivileged accounts and credential compromise.
At the same time, growing user diversity and evolving applications further expanded the attack surface. Recognizing these risks, Kinder Morgan sought a way to modernize access, reduce reliance on static RDP sessions, and enforce Zero Trust without slowing down operations.
Xage Unified Zero Trust for Data Centers
Xage’s approach to securing data centers goes beyond point solutions to deliver a unified Zero Trust framework that spans IT systems, digital workloads, and cyber-physical infrastructure. The platform eliminates reliance on legacy VPNs and other insecure access methods, static credentials, and siloed privileged access tools by enforcing identity-first, least-privilege, just-in-time access for humans, machines, and agents.
Built on a distributed mesh architecture, it enables secure remote access, fine-grained segmentation, and continuous policy enforcement—even in offline or air-gapped environments. Comprehensive monitoring, tamper-proof audit trails, and automated, policy-based protections further safeguard against credential compromise, lateral movement, and data leakage. This unification simplifies compliance and strengthens operational resilience, allowing organizations like Kinder Morgan to scale securely into the future.
Read more about Zero Trust for Data Centers & IT →
Expanding the Xage Fabric to Data Centers
Building on its successful OT deployment, Kinder Morgan sought to extend the Xage Fabric into its data center environments. Xage’s distributed, policy-driven architecture seamlessly adapted to the company’s IT environment, delivering security enhancements with minimal disruption.
For Kinder Morgan, several Xage capabilities proved essential to strengthening data center security:
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enforcing strong identity verification for every privileged session, preventing unauthorized access even if credentials were stolen.
- Just-in-Time (JIT) and Just-Enough Access (JEA): Replacing static, always-on privileges with dynamic, time-bound access tightly scoped to the task at hand.
- Unified IT + OT Access: Delivering a consistent, Zero Trust-aligned access model across both domains, eliminating silos and simplifying cross-environment workflows.
- Secure RDP with Click-to-Login: Streamlining administrator workflows with intuitive, credential-free access, improving both security and productivity.
Stronger Security and Measurable Efficiency Gains
As a result of the expanded Xage deployment, Kinder Morgan achieved immediate, tangible benefits, including:
- Reduced Cybersecurity Incidents: Fewer tickets and alerts, faster resolution times, and improved fidelity across the SOC.
- Improved User Experience: Daily workflows for administrators became more efficient thanks to secure, frictionless login.
- Unified Security Across Domains: Consistent Zero Trust enforcement for both IT and OT environments, eliminating gaps and streamlining compliance.
- Credential Attack Protection: MFA and JIT access dramatically reduced the risk of compromised credentials being exploited.
- Automated, Auditable Access Controls: Policy-driven provisioning ensured full traceability for compliance and incident response.
“Xage Security has strengthened our cybersecurity posture and reduced risk across our data center and OT infrastructure. The Xage Fabric combines strong product capabilities with measurable outcomes. They didn’t just help us achieve our Zero Trust goals—they accelerated them and provided immediate value.”
Craig Barrett, CISO
By extending the Xage Fabric into its data centers, Kinder Morgan successfully advanced its Zero Trust journey while strengthening resilience and efficiency across the organization. The partnership eliminated legacy risks, streamlined access for diverse user groups, and created a consistent security foundation that spans IT and OT.
Kinder Morgan’s experience demonstrates how Xage can secure critical infrastructure while enabling innovation—turning Zero Trust from a defensive measure into a driver of operational performance.
