Guide to Finding the Best Privileged Access Management Solutions
Privileged Access Management is the security control with the highest direct impact on breach containment. Attackers who compromise a standard user account typically require privileged access to achieve their objectives — lateral movement, data exfiltration, ransomware deployment, and persistence all depend on privileged credentials. PAM breaks that kill chain by removing standing privileged access and requiring just-in-time authorization for every privileged session.
This guide is for security architects and IAM program leads evaluating PAM solutions for enterprise deployment. We cover the deployment models, capability tiers, and vendor distinctions that determine whether a PAM program actually eliminates standing privilege risk or just adds an approval workflow layer on top of the same persistent credentials.
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Credential Vaulting vs. Just-in-Time Access: Two Fundamentally Different Models
PAM solutions fall into two architectural models that should be evaluated as distinct approaches rather than variations on the same product.
Credential vaulting stores privileged account passwords in an encrypted vault, rotates them automatically after each use, and provides a checkout/check-in workflow for human operators. This model eliminates shared static passwords and creates an audit trail of who accessed which credentials when. CyberArk's Privileged Access Manager is the market leader for vault-based PAM and the de facto standard for regulated industries with compliance reporting requirements.
Just-in-time (JIT) access provisioning takes a more radical approach: rather than managing persistent privileged credentials, the system creates temporary privileged accounts or elevations on demand, scoped to the specific system and session required, and automatically removes the privilege when the session ends. Zero standing privileges — no persistent privileged accounts at rest — is the strongest possible posture against credential theft, because there is nothing to steal. HashiCorp Vault's dynamic secrets engine and BeyondTrust's Endpoint Privilege Management both support JIT models. Evaluate your environment's readiness for JIT before committing to a vault-only approach.
Session Recording and Privileged Activity Monitoring
Session recording — capturing video, keystroke, and command-line records of every privileged session — serves two functions: forensic investigation after a breach and real-time behavioral analytics to detect anomalous privileged activity during a session.
Evaluate session recording capabilities for: recording completeness (all protocols, including RDP, SSH, database connections, and web application access), storage efficiency and searchable indexing, real-time behavioral alerts (privileged session connects at 2am and runs database bulk export), and integration with SIEM for automated alerting on suspicious session activity.
CyberArk's Privileged Session Manager provides the most comprehensive session recording in the market, supporting all major protocols with video playback and searchable keystroke logs. Delinea (formerly Thycotic and Centrify) has strong session recording and is typically 30 to 40% lower cost than CyberArk for equivalent functionality — making it the leading choice for organizations with budget constraints.
Cloud PAM and Machine Identity Management
Traditional PAM was designed for human operators accessing on-premises servers. Modern environments require PAM to cover cloud console access, service accounts, CI/CD pipeline secrets, Kubernetes service accounts, and machine-to-machine credentials — collectively called machine identities, which now outnumber human identities by 40-to-1 in cloud-native organizations.
Evaluate cloud PAM capabilities: native integrations with AWS IAM, Azure RBAC, and GCP IAM for just-in-time cloud console access, secrets management for applications and pipelines (replacing hardcoded credentials), Kubernetes secrets management, and developer-friendly APIs for embedding PAM into CI/CD workflows.
HashiCorp Vault is the strongest platform for machine identity and secrets management in cloud-native environments — it is widely adopted in DevSecOps pipelines for dynamic database credentials, cloud provider credentials, and PKI certificate management. CyberArk Conjur (its cloud-native component) and Delinea DevOps Secrets Vault provide similar capabilities at a higher price point with better enterprise support.
Discovery, Onboarding, and Coverage Completeness
A PAM program is only as effective as its coverage. Privileged accounts that are not onboarded to the PAM vault remain exploitable. Account discovery — finding all privileged accounts in your environment, including service accounts, local admin accounts, and cloud IAM roles — is frequently the hardest and most underestimated part of PAM deployment.
Evaluate discovery capabilities: automated scanning for local administrator accounts on endpoints, discovery of service accounts in Active Directory with password age and SPNs (Kerberoastable accounts), cloud IAM role enumeration, and integration with CMDB for new system onboarding workflows.
CyberArk's discovery engine is the most mature for on-premises Active Directory environments. BeyondTrust's Privileged Identity (formerly Lieberman) has strong service account discovery capabilities. For cloud environments, dedicated CIEM (Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management) tools like Ermetic or CloudKnox complement PAM discovery with cloud-specific entitlement analysis.
The bottom line
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is the industry standard for enterprises with complex on-premises environments, regulated industries, and mature PAM programs requiring comprehensive audit trails. Delinea is the strongest choice for organizations needing enterprise-grade PAM at lower cost, particularly for mid-market deployments. BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management is the leading choice for endpoint least-privilege management. HashiCorp Vault is the correct platform for cloud-native and DevSecOps environments focused on machine identity and secrets management. Evaluate your split between human and machine identities before selecting a platform — the two use cases have very different architectural requirements.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between PAM and IAM?
IAM (Identity and Access Management) governs who can authenticate to systems and what resources they can access. PAM is a subset focused specifically on privileged accounts — administrator credentials, root accounts, service accounts, and any identity with elevated access that, if compromised, enables significant lateral movement or data access. IAM provides standard user lifecycle management; PAM adds the session recording, credential vaulting, and just-in-time elevation controls specifically required for high-privilege accounts.
What are zero standing privileges and should we pursue them?
Zero standing privileges (ZSP) means no privileged account exists at rest — all privileged access is granted just-in-time for a specific task, scoped to the minimum necessary permissions, and automatically revoked when the session ends. ZSP is the strongest privileged access security posture because there are no persistent credentials to steal via phishing, credential dumping, or dark web purchase. It is technically achievable with HashiCorp Vault, CyberArk PAM, or BeyondTrust, but requires significant workflow changes for system administrators. Most organizations implement ZSP for their most sensitive systems first, then expand coverage incrementally.
How should PAM integrate with my SIEM?
PAM should stream privileged session events, credential checkout/check-in events, and policy violation alerts to your SIEM in real time. Critical detections to configure: privileged credential checkout outside business hours, the same credential checked out from multiple sessions simultaneously, repeated checkout failures (attempted access to credentials an account does not have authorization for), and privileged sessions that connect to systems outside the account's normal access pattern.
How do I handle emergency access when PAM is unavailable?
Every PAM deployment must include an emergency access ('break glass') procedure for scenarios where the PAM vault is unavailable and urgent privileged access is required. The break glass account should be a static privileged account stored in a physically secured offline location (printed credentials in a safe, offline encrypted USB drive), with dual-person integrity requirements and an automatic alert to security leadership when accessed. Test the break glass procedure quarterly and rotate credentials after every use.
Sources & references
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