SECURE INTER-COMPANY COLLABORATION ENVIRONMENT

An environment is described in which multiple companies can securely collaborate on a design or other project. The environment includes a set of resources residing on a set of one or more utility servers maintained by a first company, an access control mechanism for controlling access to the set of resources, a secure network connection between the set of utility servers and a second company, and a remote controller for remotely viewing, by an authorized individual from the second company, a user interface of an application while an authorized individual from the first company is executing the application on the set of utility servers. The secure network connection includes a secure association mechanism for establishing a secure association between participating parties, a virtual point-to-point network connection for transmitting data between associated parties, and an encryption/decryption mechanism.