Download Tool Support for MTLS/MSSL

[rej]

API Security requirements are constantly evolving and strengthening.  As API architectures migrate from traditional authentication models (Basic, OAuth, etc.) to more secure, certificate-based models, like MTLS/MSSL, leveraging Alteryx Designer will become increasingly difficult, especially for larger organizations trying to scale the use of Alteryx across a large user base, with vastly diverse skillsets.

I realize issuing API calls with certificates is possible via the Run Command tool.  We consider this a temporary workaround, and not a permanent, strategic solution.  The Run Command tool can be clunky to use when passing in variables and passing the output back into the workflow for downstream processing.

Therefore, I would like to request a more scalable approach to issuing MTLS/MSSL API calls.  Can an option be added to the Download Tool to allow for certificates to be passed on API calls?

[vepp]

I personally started feeling that Alteryx has to keep up their production factory with all the latest tools and methods. Not like voting and building products - Such a poor way. I thought Alteryx will support certificates but I just realized it is not even there and like this many more.

This post is almost 1 year old and don't see any response from Alteryx.

My friend always says this :  We are testers , idea generators and BAs for Alteryx company  but working in a different company. Looks like Alteryx is always gathering requirements through Votes 🙂 -  Even some of  the help document is outdated.

[KylieF]

Hi @vepp,

We're sorry to hear you're frustrated with our current feedback system! We're always actively working to improve the loop between customers and our product team, and while we understand that the voting system can be frustrating, it truly does help us better understand which features and enhancements would be the most beneficial to our customers across all industries and companies. 

This can mean that some ideas don't reach our product team quickly. This post in particular hasn't reached our product team yet as it doesn't have 10 likes, which is the minimum requirement of likes to potentially be brought to our product team. We've outlined the process for ideas in our Submission Guidelines if you'd like to check it out.

We also appreciate all our customers do to improve the product which is why we do our best to include the most beneficial ideas we can and work constantly to make sure they feel heard and appreciated. 

Also if you see any outdated help documentation, you can always report it to our tech writing team by clicking 'No' on the 'Was this Helpful' question at the bottom of each page. It helps us both understand what people are looking into the most and any documentation that might no longer be completely up to date.

Thank you again for your feedback!
KylieF
Moderator

[rej]

Hi @KylieF.

I couldn't agree more with @vepp's response.  I also don't agree a community-based forum approach to soliciting feedback for critical product enhancemets is the best approach.  The community voting methodology fails to acknowledge the critical nature of our enhancement requests.

In this example, I was directed by my account manager to post this idea.  However, the lack of support for MTLS/MSSL in your products is a recognized deficiency by our internal Corporate Security department.  MTLS support is a mandated technology to be used within my organization, and the fact that it's not available today, places our organization's use of Alteryx in a precarious position.  We have been granted a temporary exception to work through this deficiency with your company.   However, this exception is not open-ended and our Corporate Security department can and will revoke the exception, which will ultimately result in a loss of relationship amongst our two organizations (and clearly a financial cost for yours).

I would like to request your team to consider alternative communication channels for critical enhancements, beyond the popularity vote on which we rely today.

[bora_perusic]

Hi @rej , @vepp ,

I will leave aside your frustration form the Community process, as this is not my area, but as @KylieF said, we are grateful for any feedback and suggestions how to make things better.

Regarding the Download Tool itself, I am the Product Manager for Data Connectors, Download tool included, so I can comment on this one. As @KylieF mentioned, we are constantly looking for the ideas how to make our product better and constantly evaluating them. The "voice of customer", received from the Community, from contacts with our account executives and field engineers, from our support cases, Inspire and other personal meetings, is an important part of it. Not the only one, though, we follow the market trends, our partners, our competition and we even had an idea or two of our own.

In total, especially in the area of the Data Connectors, we have too many of them, and as any product company, we need to prioritize. In this particular case we are only starting to see the real demand for such a functionality, both from the end user and from the various security departments. I can fully understand the difficulties if you happen to live in one of the environments that requires this functionality, but we did not see the critical mass so far that would justify prioritizing this feature against other ones.

This said, we do have plans to improve the Download Tool (and make it more like "API Tool", perhaps) in the mid future, and allowing certificate usage is a feature that we will consider, including mTLS/mSSL. Unfortunately I cannot give any deadlines at this time or concrete promises, roadmaps are subject to change.

Thank you for the idea and for your feedback

Bora