Privileged Access Management

Privileged Access Management (PAM) is one of the most important areas of risk management and security in any organization. Privileged accounts have traditionally been given to administrators to access critical data and applications. But, changing business practices, agile software development and digital transformation has meant that users of privileged accounts have become more numerous and widespread. To reduce the risk of privileged accounts being hijacked or fraudulently used, and to uphold stringent regulatory compliance within an organization, a strong PAM solution is essential.

By Paul Fisher
pf@kuppingercole.com

June 19, 2020

Content of Figures

Figure 1 The PAM market is seeing dynamic growth as vendors seek to add better functionality to meet security challenges and more players enter the market.
Figure 2 Advanced PAM elements. As the market demands have developed vendors have added more functionality to their solutions.

1 How to Use the Buyer´s Compass

This KuppingerCole Buyer’s Compass on PAM solutions provides information about

Use Cases
Functional Selection Criteria
Non-functional Selectio ...

2 Market Segments Defined

Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions are critical cybersecurity controls that address the security risks associated with the use of privileged ...

With the attack surface expanding and the number of attacks increasing every year, an integrated and more comprehensive PAM solution is most often req ...

At KuppingerCole, we classify the Privileged Access Management (PAM) market into the following key technology functions with PAM vendors providing var ...

3 Top Six Use Cases for PAM

The top six use cases for PAM are listed below in table I.

Use Case	Description
Cyber Security	Hackers and cyber criminals have ...

4 Top 20 Selection Criteria - Functional

When looking at products in detail there are often hundreds of different criteria to be evaluated. However, there are some criteria that are of higher ...

5 Top 10 Selection Criteria - Non-functional

Aside from the functional selection criteria listed above, there are several non-functional criteria to consider when deciding on PAM. Table III lists ...

6 PAM Selection Criteria and Use Cases Matrix

Having identified the most important use cases and selection criteria for vendors in PAM, this section provides a matrix that maps use cases and funct ...

KuppingerCole Advisory Services can support you with adapting criteria to your specific requirements and further services around selecting the appropr ...

7 Top 5 Prerequisites - Technical

Privileged Access Management cannot be isolated from other areas of IT Security. Thus, there are some technical prerequisites that should be met befor ...

8 Top 10 Prerequisites - Organizational

Success in PAM rollout depends not only on the technology selected; there are also various organizational prerequisites. The following table lists the ...

9 Top 10 Prerequisites to ask the PAM Vendors

Aside from asking for specific features, there are some more questions that are worth asking vendors. The following questions help in understanding th ...

10 Related Research

Advisory Note: Trends in Privileged Access Management for the Digital Enterprise – 71273
Architecture Blueprint: Access Governance and Privilege Management – 79045
Blog: PAM Can Reduce Risk of Compliance Failure but is Part of a Bigger Picture
Blog: Privileged Access Management Can Take on AI-Powered Malware to Protect
Blog: Taking One Step Back: The Road to Real IDaaS and What IAM is Really About
Leadership Brief: The Information Protection Life Cycle and Framework: Acquire and Access – 80371
Leadership Brief: The Information Protection Life Cycle and Framework: Control Access -- 80372
Leadership Brief: Privileged Access Management Considerations – 72016
Leadership Brief: Identity Fabrics – Connecting Anyone to Every Service – 80204
Leadership Brief: Leveraging Identity Fabrics on Your Way Towards Cloud Based IAM -- 80501
Leadership Compass: Identity Provisioning – 70949
Leadership Compass: Identity Governance & Administration – 71135
Leadership Compass: Privilege Management – 80088
Whitepaper: AI, Machine Learning and Privilege Access Management – 80120
Whitepaper: Digital Transformation for Business Enablement Requires a Modern Identity Fabric -- 80165
Whitepaper: Privileged Access Requirements for Small to Medium Size Businesses (SMB) – 80123
Whitepaper: Understanding Privilege Access Management – 80302