Management server, connection support method, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with connection support program

A management server disposed outside a firewall and supporting connection of communications between a control target device disposed inside the firewall and a cloud server disposed outside the firewall, includes a server-side session establishing portion to, based on a request from a relay device disposed inside the firewall, establish a session with the relay device, a device information acquiring portion to acquire device information about the control target device from the relay device via the established session, and an update determining portion to, in response to reception of a request of connecting to the control target device from the cloud server, determine whether to update the device information. The device information acquiring portion includes an upon-session-establishment acquiring portion to acquire the device information when a session with the relay device is established, and an upon-session-request acquiring portion to acquire the device information after updating the device information is determined.