Some context: The connection was for an appliance provided by a trusted vendor that only needed access from specific outside IP addresses and would not need to be exposed to any internal systems, it could be locked down.
There was no way around needing external access and we only had two weeks to finish the project (it was requested by the President of the company because it was requested by a large client) however we were still faced with "it will take so much work, that it will be 3 months" In the end we were able to implement what was requested on time and the customer was happy. Roadblocks like these are why startups are able to run circles around large companies, unless there is someone inside to bulldoze through the red tape things just don't get done.