Historically, software and DevOps engineers did the work of developing directly on their local laptops. To access private resources necessary to get that work done - internal databases, pipeline tools, etc - devs needed a VPN to securely access those resources.

Today things work a bit differently. Instead of developing exclusively on a local device, developer environments have grown in popularity. They provide sandboxed environments for offering a reliable development experience. However, these tools come with their own headaches, particularly when it comes to accessing private resources, particularly if they can’t always access the VPN connection and the IP addresses involved are ephemeral.

But accessing essential resources from dev environments doesn’t need to be painful. In this blog we’ll discuss how Twingate can help teams secure private resources while managing and scaling access via developer environments through our new integration with Coder.

What is Coder

Coder is an open-source development environment that also supports self-hosting, offering numerous advantages for developers.

In today’s fast-paced development landscape, managing multiple projects simultaneously can be cumbersome due to the need to switch between environment variables, manage secrets, and adjust SDK versions. Coder offers a solution by enabling developers to effortlessly handle multiple projects within tailored development environments. This streamlined approach enhances productivity, allowing developers to focus more on coding and less on administrative tasks. Moreover, Coder promotes cost-efficiency by enabling organizations to offload computationally intensive tasks to the cloud or on-premises infrastructure, reducing the substantial hardware costs associated with providing high-performance devices to each developer.

Additionally, Coder simplifies administration by centralizing software management, allowing IT teams to easily roll out updates across all development environments regardless of individual developers’ operating system preferences. With enhanced security features, Coder provides isolated development environments that safeguard source code, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access or leaks. In the event of a breach, Coder’s isolated environments ensure that only the affected project is compromised, limiting the impact and providing peace of mind to organizations and developers alike.

What is Twingate

Twingate is a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution that enables organizations to apply modern security principles across their network, even as environments and workforces grow increasingly distributed.

Unlike traditional VPNs, Twingate takes a “many to many” approach to network security rather than a perimeter-based approach. Twingate fosters direct peer-to-peer connections to private corporate resources - on-prem servers, applications, cloud environments, etc. - enabling organizations to limit their exposure to the public internet, reduce their attack surface, and significantly improve the end user experience with faster, more reliable access to those resources.

Twingate's architecture eliminates the need for complex VPN configurations and provides granular control over access permissions, allowing organizations to enforce security policies based on factors like user identity, device posture, and location.

Because Twingate also invests heavily in our API and supports automation tools like Kubernetes and Terraform, customers can implement and maintain a Zero Trust security model programatically.

Twingate + Coder

We mentioned earlier that development environments often require access to internal resources such as databases and pipeline tools. That’s where the new Twingate + Coder integration comes into play.

Twingate helps engineers access these internal resources securely and easily from within their Coder development environments. This gives organizations all the benefits of Coder - isolated dev environments, centralized software management, reduced hardware costs, and more - without the performance and security risks of legacy remote access tools.

How does it work? By modifying the Coder template, the Twingate client can be deployed within the Coder workspace. The Twingate client can operate in headless mode, utilizing service accounts, or in interactive mode, allowing users to sign in with their Twingate accounts.

For a detailed, step-by-step guide on setting up Twingate in Coder, refer to the documentation available here. Not a Twingate customer yet? If you’re interested in taking Twingate for a spin, you can request a personalized demo from our team or try it out yourself for free.