Buyer's Guide: Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Section 1

Executive Summary

Privileged credentials are the keys to the kingdom — 80% of security breaches involve compromised privileged accounts, making PAM the highest-ROI security investment.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) secures the most powerful credentials in your enterprise: root/admin accounts, service accounts, API keys, and infrastructure secrets. With 80% of breaches involving compromised privileged credentials, PAM is the cornerstone of Zero Trust identity security.

This guide evaluates 7 platforms including CyberArk, BeyondTrust, Delinea, HashiCorp Vault, Saviynt, One Identity, and Teleport.

$4.1B Global PAM market, 2026

80% Breaches involving privileged credentials

74% Enterprises expanding PAM to cloud workloads

Section 2

Why PAM Is the Highest-ROI Security Investment

Privileged accounts provide unrestricted access to critical systems: domain controllers, databases, cloud consoles, CI/CD pipelines, and network infrastructure. A compromised privileged credential enables lateral movement, data exfiltration, ransomware deployment, and complete infrastructure takeover.

🎯

Strategic Impact

PAM directly mitigates: credential theft (vaulting eliminates stored passwords), lateral movement (just-in-time access limits exposure windows), and insider threats (session recording provides forensic evidence and deterrence).

Key 2026 trends: secrets management for DevOps/cloud-native, machine identity management, cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM), and convergence with IGA into unified identity security platforms.

📈

Related Buyer Guide

Identity & Access Management

PAM is the privileged tier of your broader IAM architecture.

Section 3

Build vs. Buy Analysis

Evaluate the build-vs-buy decision for your organization.

Scenario	Recommendation	Rationale
No PAM solution with shared admin accounts	Deploy PAM Immediately	Shared privileged credentials are the #1 audit finding and the easiest attack vector. PAM is urgent.
CyberArk deployed for servers, no cloud coverage	Extend to Cloud + DevOps	Extend PAM to cloud consoles, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines with secrets management.
HashiCorp Vault for secrets only	Add Session Management	Vault handles secrets but lacks session recording, just-in-time access workflows, and compliance reporting.
Cloud-native with minimal on-prem	Evaluate Cloud-Native PAM	Cloud-first organizations should evaluate SaaS PAM (Delinea, BeyondTrust Cloud) for faster deployment.
DevOps-heavy with secrets sprawl	Prioritize Secrets Management	Start with secrets management (Vault, CyberArk Conjur) before full PAM for developer adoption.

⚠️

Common Pitfall

The biggest PAM failure mode is incomplete coverage. Organizations vault 50 admin accounts but leave 500 service accounts and 2,000 SSH keys unmanaged. Conduct a full privileged credential discovery before deployment.

Section 4

Key Capabilities & Evaluation Criteria

Use the following weighted evaluation framework to assess vendors.

Capability Domain	Weight	What to Evaluate
Credential Vaulting	25%	Password vaulting, rotation, checkout/checkin, SSH key management, API key storage, certificate management
Session Management	20%	Session recording, real-time monitoring, keystroke logging, session termination, audit trail
Just-in-Time Access	20%	Time-bound access, approval workflows, privilege elevation, zero standing privileges, emergency break-glass
Secrets Management	20%	Dynamic secrets, API-based retrieval, Kubernetes integration, CI/CD pipeline injection, cloud provider secrets
Discovery & Analytics	15%	Privileged account discovery, risk scoring, behavior analytics, compliance reporting, SIEM integration

💡

Evaluation Tip

Test the privileged account discovery capability first. Run it against your Active Directory and cloud environments to find all privileged accounts (including service accounts and orphaned credentials). The discovery results should surprise you.

Section 5

Vendor Landscape

The market includes established leaders and innovative challengers.

CyberArk Leader — Enterprise PAM

Strengths: Broadest PAM capabilities, deepest enterprise integrations, Conjur for DevOps secrets, strongest compliance features, and largest customer base (8,000+ enterprises). Considerations: Complex deployment; premium pricing; modernization to SaaS (Identity Security Platform) still in progress.

Best for: Large enterprises requiring comprehensive PAM with deep compliance and audit capabilities

BeyondTrust Leader — Unified PAM

Strengths: Unified platform (privileged passwords + endpoints + remote access), strong endpoint privilege management, and competitive pricing vs. CyberArk. Considerations: Cloud-native capabilities maturing; less DevOps-focused than CyberArk Conjur/Vault.

Best for: Organizations seeking unified PAM covering privileged passwords, endpoints, and remote access

Delinea Strong — Cloud-First PAM

Strengths: Cloud-native SaaS deployment, fastest time-to-value, modern UX, and competitive pricing for mid-market. Considerations: Less feature depth than CyberArk for complex enterprise scenarios; smaller partner ecosystem.

Best for: Mid-market and cloud-first organizations seeking fast deployment with modern SaaS PAM

HashiCorp Vault Strong — Secrets Management

Strengths: Best-in-class secrets management, dynamic secrets, excellent cloud/Kubernetes integration, open-source community, and developer-first approach. Considerations: Not a full PAM solution (no session recording, limited admin workflows); requires engineering capacity.

Best for: DevOps/cloud-native organizations prioritizing secrets management and infrastructure-as-code

Teleport Emerging — Infrastructure Access

Strengths: Modern infrastructure access platform, certificate-based authentication (no passwords), excellent Kubernetes/SSH/database access, and open-source option. Considerations: Narrow scope (infrastructure access only); lacks traditional PAM features (vaulting, compliance reporting).

Best for: Engineering teams seeking modern, certificate-based infrastructure access without traditional PAM complexity

🔎

Market Insight

PAM is converging with IAM and IGA into unified identity security platforms. CyberArk is building an Identity Security Platform; BeyondTrust is unifying PAM + endpoint privilege + remote access. The standalone PAM category will merge into broader identity security by 2028.

Section 6

Pricing Models & Cost Structure

Pricing varies significantly by vendor, deployment model, and scale.

Vendor	Pricing Model	Typical Enterprise Range	Key Cost Drivers
CyberArk	Per-user + per-target	$15–$40/privileged user/month	Privileged user count; target systems; modules (Vault, PSM, Conjur, EPM)
BeyondTrust	Per-asset, bundled	$10–$30/managed asset/month	Managed systems count; module bundle; endpoint privilege management scope
Delinea	Per-user, SaaS	$8–$25/user/month	User count; Secret Server vs. Platform tier; cloud vs. on-prem
HashiCorp Vault	Open source + Enterprise	$0–$0.50/secret/month	Free OSS; Enterprise priced per secret/node; HCP Vault consumption-based
Teleport	Per-resource, tiered	$5–$20/resource/month	Protected resources count; Team vs. Enterprise tier; SSO/RBAC features

3-Year TCO Formula

TCO = (License × 36 months) + Implementation + Migration + Training + Internal FTE − Productivity Gains − Cost Avoidance

Section 7

Implementation & Migration

Follow a phased approach to minimize risk and maintain operational continuity.

Phase 1

Discovery & Vaulting (Months 1–3)

Discover all privileged accounts, vault top-priority credentials (domain admin, root), implement automated password rotation, establish break-glass procedures.

Phase 2

Session Management (Months 4–6)

Enable session recording for critical systems, implement just-in-time access workflows, deploy approval chains, train administrators on new access procedures.

Phase 3

Secrets & DevOps (Months 7–10)

Integrate secrets management with CI/CD pipelines, vault API keys and service accounts, implement dynamic secrets for cloud workloads, extend to Kubernetes.

Phase 4

Analytics & Optimization (Months 11–14)

Enable behavior analytics for privileged sessions, implement risk-based access decisions, achieve zero standing privilege targets, establish PAM KPIs and compliance reporting.

Section 8

Selection Checklist & RFP Questions

Use this checklist during vendor evaluation to ensure comprehensive coverage of critical capabilities.

Section 9

Peer Perspectives

Insights from technology leaders who have completed evaluations and implementations within the past 24 months.

“CyberArk discovery found 3x more privileged accounts than we knew existed, including 200 service accounts with admin rights that had never been rotated.”

— CISO, Insurance Company, 15,000 managed credentials

“We started with HashiCorp Vault for secrets management and it transformed our DevOps security posture. Dynamic database credentials eliminated our biggest attack surface.”

— VP Engineering, FinTech, 500+ microservices

“Zero standing privileges sounds extreme but it works. Just-in-time access reduced our attack surface by 90% with minimal impact on admin productivity.”

— Director Identity Security, Healthcare, 5,000 privileged users

Section 10

Related Resources

Buyer Guide Identity & Access Management PAM operates within the broader IAM architecture Buyer Guide EDR/XDR Endpoint detection monitors privileged credential usage Glossary Zero Trust Architecture PAM implements least-privilege and zero standing privilege principles Article Zero Trust Implementation PAM is a critical component of Zero Trust identity verification