Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)

The KuppingerCole Leadership Compass focuses on Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) software products, emphasizing the critical need for managing access rights and permissions in cloud infrastructures to ensure security and compliance. This report updates and reworks the 2022 edition, shifting focus to identity management aspects, reflective of the industry's move towards Least Privilege, Zero Standing Privilege, and Just-in-Time (JIT) access management. As Privileged Access Management (PAM) for DevOps becomes outdated, CIEM platforms take precedence, driven by agile, cloud-native vendors. Major players, like CyberArk and BeyondTrust, are transforming towards identity-focused solutions, adapting to new market demands. The report highlights the importance of evaluating the entire spectrum of vendors, including innovative start-ups and established leaders, for their comprehensive capabilities, financial strength, and market presence.

CIEM solutions manage and secure identity access to various cloud infrastructure resources by implementing and enforcing access controls, permissions, and entitlements. Essential functionalities of CIEM platforms include centralized access management, continuous monitoring, RBAC, policy enforcement, integration with IAM systems, scalability, and API capabilities. The evaluation methodology integrates Overall Leadership, Product Leadership, Innovation Leadership, and Market Leadership, with specific analyses of correlation between these categories to provide insights for potential growth and market performance. The report also offers a comparative overview of vendor ratings across security, functionality, deployment, interoperability, and usability categories, and includes a comprehensive evaluation of specific vendors like ARCON, Britive, CyberArk, EmpowerID, and others. Further analysis includes vendors making significant contributions or showing potential for strong competition in the future.