Introduction
The Privileged Access Management market has matured, but many of its practices remain anchored in outdated assumptions. Far from vendor‑bashing, this article aims to spark a conversation about the twelve key challenges that prevent organisations from achieving true privileged access maturity. By recognising these issues, we can explore better approaches and encourage innovation.
1. Market Approach to PAM
Analyst reports and vendor marketing define PAM largely by a checklist of features—vaulting, session management, privilege elevation, AD bridging, secrets management and CIEM. This narrow view overlooks other effective approaches and squeezes out innovative, niche vendors who address specific problems well. Redefine PAM around outcomes—secure, controlled access—not just products.
2. Vaulting & Session Management
Password vaults and session proxies address real needs, but the mantra “vault everything” leads to frustration. Vaults should manage default and shared accounts; personal and machine identities may require different treatments. Similarly, session management is useful for certain server‑side protocols but unwieldy for modern web and cloud apps. Consider distributed vaults and context‑aware proxies.
3. Business Password Management
Privilege isn’t limited to IT administrators. Every employee manages sensitive data. Traditional PAM platforms often neglect user‑friendly password management for the workforce. Look to consumer‑grade experiences with enterprise‑grade security to encourage adoption.
4. Discovery
Visibility is the first step to control, yet many discovery tools tell you only what you already know: accounts in Active Directory or servers on the domain. The real risk lies in unmanaged systems, shadow IT, hard‑coded credentials and misconfigured cloud services. Continuous discovery—especially in dynamic cloud environments—is essential.
5. Service Account Management
Service accounts underpin applications and often have broad privileges. Rotating their passwords isn’t enough; you need to know where they are used, who owns them and how to manage them without breaking services. Discovery, lifecycle management and attestation are critical.
6. Machine Identities
Non‑human identities—such as microservices, containers and IoT devices—outnumber users. They often authenticate with certificates, tokens or keys. Many PAM solutions don’t handle this scale or diversity well. Dedicated machine identity management is emerging as a distinct discipline.
7. Secrets vs Passwords
Enterprises may deploy separate vaults for passwords and secrets. This fragmentation complicates policy enforcement and integration. Treat vaults as commodities—use multiple if necessary, but strive for consistent policies and governance across them.
8. Policies
Least‑privilege policies are difficult to create and maintain manually. Static policies often grant permanent rights that contradict zero‑trust principles. Look for dynamic policy engines that adapt to context and behaviour, and explore open‑source policy tools to reduce vendor lock‑in.
9. Agents vs Agentless
Traditional PAM vendors were once required to have local agents for credential control, but in cloud‑native environments, agents can be impractical. Evaluate both agent‑based and agentless approaches; choose based on workload type, performance and management overhead rather than analyst checkboxes.
10. Native Cloud
Major cloud providers offer their own secrets managers, least‑privilege tools and audit capabilities. Using them can improve performance and security for cloud workloads, but managing multiple platforms introduces complexity. A decentralised model with a unified control plane may offer the best of both worlds.
11. IAM Convergence
PAM intersects with Identity Governance (IGA) and Access Management. Historically, these disciplines were separate, but convergence is accelerating. Platforms that combine least privilege, authentication and governance offer efficiency—but only if they maintain depth of functionality in each area.
12. User Experience
No matter how secure a solution is, poor user experience will doom adoption. Early PAM tools forced administrators into clunky web proxies and removed their favourite tools. Modern solutions must blend security with convenience—supporting native clients, offering self‑service features and providing clear value to users.
Conclusion
Challenging the status quo isn’t about criticising vendors—it’s about recognising where current approaches fall short and seeking better ways. By focusing on outcomes, user experience and emerging disciplines like machine identity and dynamic policy, organisations can build privileged access programmes that are secure, flexible and ready for the future.
