Termidesk VDI Replaces Microsoft RDS and RDGW in Severstal's Infrastructure

Uveon Cloud Technologies (part of Astra Group) has completed the deployment of Termidesk VDI at the Cherepovets Steel Mill of PAO Severstal. The Russian solution replaced the infrastructure based on Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and Remote Desktop Gateway, which had been used for secure remote access to the company's technological environment.

With Termidesk VDI, users and administrators securely connect to engineering workstations and servers of industrial process control systems. The project became part of PAO Severstal's program for import substitution of software at critical information infrastructure facilities.

For the company, it was important not simply to replace the foreign solution, but to maintain the resilience and security of remote access in a highly protected industrial environment. Any changes in such infrastructure require thorough testing, compliance with regulatory requirements, and correct integration with existing information security tools.

Termidesk VDI was selected through a competitive procurement process in which four alternative solutions were considered. The main criteria were compliance with mandatory information security requirements, support for business-critical remote access scenarios, and the product's readiness to operate within the customer's complex domain architecture. Based on the comparative analysis, Termidesk VDI was recognized as the solution most closely meeting PAO Severstal's requirements.

The pilot project began at the most complex site — the Cherepovets Steel Mill — in 2024. The deployment took place in the technological network segment with strict restrictions imposed by the information security infrastructure. The solution needed to be integrated with both the existing Microsoft Active Directory technology domain and a new technology domain based on the Russian directory service ALD Pro.

During the pilot project implementation, the project team faced numerous challenges.

One of the most complex tasks was implementing strict certificate-based authentication using USB tokens in a cross-domain architecture integrated with the technology certification authority. Supporting this scenario required additional engineering adaptation of the product and close collaboration between the customer's and the developer's teams.

PAO Severstal's specialists participated in testing preliminary builds, while the Uveon Cloud Technologies product team promptly refined the solution to meet the requirements of the industrial environment. As a result, stable updates were released, confirming the operability of Termidesk VDI in the customer's target infrastructure.

Termidesk VDI was implemented in collaboration with the ALD Pro team — Astra Group's Russian directory service that replaces Microsoft Active Directory in the production environment of PAO Severstal's technology domain. The company's specialists deployed and configured ALD Pro in the production environment independently, using their own IT team.

The domain infrastructure includes a total of five controllers. Two-way trust relationships were configured between the new ALD Pro domain and the existing Microsoft Active Directory domain, and during the transitional migration period, Termidesk users undergo strict domain authentication via ALD Pro or MS AD. This architecture enabled centralized management of the account migration process, simplified access control, increased the overall security level of the infrastructure, and allowed production processes to continue uninterrupted during the transition.

The project became part of a broader program to introduce Russian infrastructure solutions into PAO Severstal's IT landscape. In addition to Termidesk VDI and ALD Pro, the company uses the Astra Automation platform, designed for centralized execution of server infrastructure maintenance and management operations, automated processing of user account creation and management policies, and mass notification distribution. The use of complementary Astra Group products enables the consistent formation of a unified domestic technology environment.

According to PAO Severstal's team, after migrating from Microsoft RDS, the process of connecting to technology servers accelerated approximately twofold. Furthermore, the use of the Russian solution eliminated the need to purchase additional Microsoft licenses when expanding the number of users.

As a result, PAO Severstal has established a domestic infrastructure for secure remote access to its technological environment. Termidesk provides user and administrator connections to engineering workstations and industrial process control servers, while ALD Pro handles their domain authentication. The project reduced dependence on foreign software without compromising the resilience, manageability, or security of business-critical infrastructure.

"The deployment of Termidesk VDI at the Cherepovets Steel Mill is a telling example of how Russian infrastructure software passes validation under real conditions at a large industrial enterprise. It was important for us not only to replace the foreign solution, but also to ensure Termidesk operates in a highly protected environment with a complex domain architecture and stringent authentication requirements. Together with PAO Severstal's team, we adapted the product to the specific characteristics of the technological environment and confirmed its readiness for operation at critical information infrastructure facilities," commented Denis Mukhin, Director of Virtualization and Cloud Services at Astra Group.

"The migration to Termidesk VDI allowed us to meet the regulator's requirements for replacing foreign software at critical information infrastructure facilities within the established deadlines. It was important for the company to obtain not a formal analogue of a foreign product, but a reliable tool ensuring stable and secure access to technological networks. Joint work with the Astra Group team helped solve complex technical challenges and confirm the applicability of the solution in our infrastructure," added Boris Yusufov, Project Manager, Ph.D. in Engineering, Digital Development and Customer Interaction Department, PAO Severstal.