Pelican does NOT require any Inbound firewall connections.

Note: Outbound versus Inbound connections describe how two devices are able to establish their initial connection to create a communication path from a device inside of a building across the Internet to a device in the Cloud.

Outbound connections are similar to how your computer reaches a website from inside the business. The computer creates a connection to a website (by you putting the websites URL into your browser). The website has no record of where you are located, because you made the connection. This is extremely secure because firewall’s do not care if internal devices are connecting to websites.

Inbound connections are similar to taking your computer home and having IT setup an allowance for you to use your computer to connect back into the business’s internal private network. The computer, at your home, needs to know how to find the business’s network. This also means that the business network’s firewall needs to allow external computers to connect into the internal private network.

Both of these connection approaches can be setup to be extremely secure. But, an Inbound connection requires IT support and special firewall configurations. Even with Inbound connections being secure, every Inbound allowance type is considered a potential security risk.

Pelican’s goal is to eliminate all unnecessary security risks.