PAM (Privileged Access Management) is one of the established core disciplines within IAM. PAM also is the IAM discipline that is changing most from what it has been in the past.
On one hand, there is the impact of CIEM & DREAM, Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management or Dynamic Resource Entitlement & Access Management. This is about the expansion of PAM beyond humans accessing servers and selected applications towards any type of human and non-human (silicon) identity accessing any type of workload, from servers to dynamic cloud resources. This also implies an expansion from serving static data center infrastructures to dynamic workloads in today’s agile IT. PAM is changing, with more parties involved – a “PAMocracy”, as KuppingerCole Analyst Paul Fisher recently named it.
These changes also require expansions in integration to other IT services. There needs to be a dynamic governance approach, where IGA comes into play. It requires rethinking whether PAM tools really should care for authentication. There is no need for authentication point solutions in an age where most organizations have a strong Access Management solution with MFA, passwordless authentication and adaptive, risk- and context-based access in place. Finally, this new PAM must integrate with the DevOps tools chain for permanent updates about new code and the resources used as well as with IT Asset Management for an always up-to-date insight into the ever-changing, dynamic IT landscape that needs to be protected.
Also worth to think about is integration with further security solutions, beyond the standard SIEM/SOAR integration. AI-powered security solutions are one aspect. Integration to Cloud Security Posture Management is another example.
In this panel, the state and requirements on the future PAM will be discussed.
