Remote instructions are received at a remote computing device from a requesting device through a firewall. The remote computing device resides in a secured data center. Access credentials are presented by the requesting device. A request is made to an assistant computing device to query a dataset in communication with the remote computing device. Encrypted access credentials and encrypted remote instructions are received from the assistant computing device. The encrypted access credentials are configured to allow the requesting computing device to access the remote computing device. The encrypted remote instructions are configured to enable the remote computing device to execute at least one of the following: at least one data query, or at least one data manipulation. The encrypted access credentials are decrypted. The encrypted remote instructions are decrypted. The remote instructions are executed to generate query results. The query results are communicated to the requesting device.