Introduction
Privileged Access Management (PAM) is more than just a buzzword. It’s a critical discipline for protecting sensitive systems and data by controlling who has elevated rights,
when and why. To understand where PAM is headed, it helps to know where it came from and what distinguishes traditional solutions from newer approaches.
Why We Need PAM
Privilege is necessary; without it, no one could administer systems, deploy updates or manage infrastructure. But unrestricted privileges create risk. PAM aims to reduce that risk by limiting the scope and duration of elevated access. In practice, this means allowing a user or process to perform a privileged action only when necessary and monitoring that activity for anomalies.
A Brief History
The roots of PAM stretch back over 40 years. In the early 1980s, sudo and similar tools emerged to let administrators execute privileged commands on Unix without sharing the root password. Around 2001, the first enterprise password vaults appeared, automating the rotation and checkout of shared administrator credentials. From there, vendors built richer portfolios—adding session proxies, endpoint least‑privilege tools, secrets vaults, cloud entitlements management (CIEM) and more.
Traditional PAM Solutions
Established vendors offer comprehensive platforms that often include:
• Password vaulting: Secure storage and rotation of shared credentials. • Session management: Proxies that broker connections and record admin activity. • Endpoint least privilege: Tools to elevate applications or commands for desktop and server users. • Secrets management: Storage for API keys, certificates and tokens. • AD bridging: Allowing Unix/Linux systems to use Active Directory for authentication. • Access management: SSO capabilities integrated with privileged workflows. • CIEM and ITDR: Managing cloud entitlements and detecting identity‑based threats.
While feature‑rich, these platforms can be complex and may include functions you don’t need. User experience varies, and some tools were designed primarily for IT administrators, not the wider workforce.
User Experience Matters
Adoption determines success. If administrators find the tool clunky, they’ll circumvent it. If developers can’t easily obtain secrets for their pipelines, they’ll embed passwords in code. Modern solutions prioritise usability—supporting native clients, minimising clicks and integrating with existing workflows.
Emerging and Niche Vendors
In recent years, smaller vendors have entered the market with targeted solutions for specific problems: business password management, service account discovery, machine identity governance, dynamic access policies and more. These “new age” tools don’t aim to replace an entire PAM suite but to complement it where traditional platforms fall short.
Choosing the Right Approach
There’s no one‑size‑fits‑all PAM solution. Your choice should depend on:
• Use cases: Are you securing administrator access, developer pipelines, container workloads or business user credentials? • Existing infrastructure: How will the solution integrate with your identity store, SSO, endpoints and cloud services? • User personas: Does the tool offer a good experience for everyone who will use it? • Budget and resources: Can you manage a large platform, or would targeted tools meet your needs?
It’s often beneficial to mix and match: use a traditional vault for shared admin accounts, a secrets manager for cloud functions and a password manager for the workforce. What matters is that policies, auditability and governance remain consistent.
Conclusion
Privileged Access Management continues to evolve. By understanding its history and recognising the strengths and limitations of both traditional and new‑age offerings, you can build a modern PAM strategy that balances security, usability and cost. The future lies in flexibility: using the right tool for the job, aligning with your risk profile and ensuring that users embrace the solution rather than evade it.
