Upon initial connection to a properly licensed TMC, the authentication setup page appears, where you can choose to run the TMC with or without authentication.

Authentication can also be enabled or disabled in the TMC Settings panel. If you enable authentication, all of the security features described in this document are available.

If you do not enable authentication, you will be directly connected to the TMC without being prompted for a username and password.

Even with no security enabled, however, you can still force SSL connection between browsers and the Terracotta Management Console. For details, see Forcing SSL Connections For TMC Clients.