The CISO and CIO’s guide to PAM
‍(Privileged Access Management) in 2025

From Password Vaults to Zero Trust: Why PAM is Being Reimagined

Privileged Access Management has reached an inflection point. The vault-centric approach that dominated the last decade—storing credentials in secure repositories and rotating passwords—is giving way to a fundamentally different paradigm: zero standing privileges with just-in-time access and step-up authentication.

Modern Privileged Access Management solutions like BalkanID, Cyberark, ConductorOne, and Okta are built for fast-moving SaaS stacks, cloud infrastructure, and audit demands—going far beyond traditional credential vaulting.

Key Value Drivers:

• Just-in-Time (JIT) Access: Eliminate standing privileges with temporary, task-specific access
• Privilege Escalation Alerts: Real-time detection of unauthorized privilege elevation
• Automated Revocation: Time-bound access that expires automatically after task completion

The New Landscape of PAM

The cybersecurity landscape has fundamentally shifted. Traditional PAM solutions, centered around credential vaulting and password rotation, are struggling to keep pace with modern attack vectors and operational demands. While legacy PAM focused on securing static credentials, today's organizations need visibility, automation, and risk-based access control.

Traditional PAM limitations include:

• Privilege creep: Users accumulate access over time without proper review
• Overprovisioning: Excessive permissions granted for convenience
• Unmanaged third-party access: Vendor and contractor privileges lack oversight
• Limited visibility: Shadow admins with hidden escalation paths

Modern PAM addresses these challenges through continuous access governance combined with just-in-time provisioning. Instead of relying solely on credential vaults, modern solutions provide intelligent access orchestration that adapts to risk signals and operational context.

Evaluation Criteria: What Makes a PAM Solution Enterprise-Ready Today

1. ‍Just-in-Time Access & Temporary Elevation
   Modern PAM eliminates standing privileges by granting access only when needed and automatically revoking it after completion. This significantly reduces the attack surface while maintaining operational efficiency.‍
2. Granular Access Policies
   Solutions must support fine-grained policies based on roles, groups, resource tags, and contextual factors like location, device health, and user behavior.‍
3. Privilege Escalation Monitoring
   Real-time detection and alerting of unauthorized privilege elevation attempts, including AI-powered anomaly detection based on user behavior patterns.‍
4. Visibility into Shadow Admins
   Critical capability to identify users with hidden privilege escalation paths through nested groups, direct permissions, or cloud entitlements that bypass traditional admin groups.‍
5. Session Recording & Auditing
   Comprehensive logging and session recording capabilities with tamper-proof audit trails for forensics and compliance.‍
6. Integration with Cloud Infrastructure
   Native support for AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and Kubernetes environments with API-based deployments that scale with cloud-native architectures.‍
7. Risk Signals & Automated Remediation
   Integration of contextual risk factors and automated response capabilities to suspicious activities.‍
8. Ease of Deployment and Admin Experience
   Cloud-native architecture with rapid deployment capabilities and user-friendly interfaces that encourage adoption.

How Each Platform Tackles Privileged Access

BalkanID

BalkanID stands out by unifying Identity Governance and Privileged Access Management with sophisticated risk-aware access controls. The platform provides just-in-time privilege management that incorporates real-time risk signals and behavioral analytics.

ConductorOne

ConductorOne delivers robust just-in-time access capabilities specifically designed for cloud and infrastructure environments. The platform excels in workflow-based access provisioning with self-service requests, smart auto-approval, and seamless integration with DevOps tools.

Key strengths include flexible approval policies tied to on-call schedules, risk-based insights for approvers, and native support for emergency break-glass scenarios. ConductorOne's architecture enables fine-grained provisioning for any permissions, roles, or resources, making it ideal for engineering-heavy environments requiring rapid, secure access to infrastructure.

Okta

Okta approaches PAM through its Workforce Identity Cloud integration, offering privileged access capabilities as part of a broader identity platform. The solution provides JIT access through workflows and customizable approval flows that integrate with existing Identity Governance capabilities.

Okta's strength lies in its extensive integration ecosystem and modular approach, allowing organizations to build PAM functionality on top of existing IAM infrastructure. The platform supports session recording, audit logging, and policy-based access controls, making it suitable for enterprises already invested in Okta's identity ecosystem who want to extend PAM capabilities.

CyberArk

CyberArk represents the evolution of vault-based PAM toward modern identity security, offering a comprehensive platform that bridges traditional credential management with emerging zero standing privilege capabilities. The platform provides advanced privileged credential management through its tamper-proof Digital Vault, automatically discovering and onboarding accounts across on-premises, multi-cloud, and OT/ICS environments.

Delinea Secret Server

Delinea Secret Server focuses on enterprise-grade password vaulting with robust automation and compliance capabilities. The platform excels in credential lifecycle management, providing automated password rotation, role-based access controls, and comprehensive discovery capabilities that identify service accounts across entire network infrastructures.

BeyondTrust

BeyondTrust delivers the most comprehensive traditional PAM platform, combining credential vaulting, privileged remote access, and endpoint privilege management in a unified solution. The platform's Total PASM (Privileged Access Security Management) approach provides end-to-end coverage for privileged access scenarios, from password management to remote support capabilities.

CISO Checklist for Selecting the Right PAM Tool

A comprehensive evaluation of Privileged Access Management solutions should cover strategic, technical, and operational dimensions. Below is an expanded checklist to guide CISOs through critical decision factors:

1. Dynamic Access Requirements
   
   • Would your organization benefit from having privileged access automatically increased or restricted based on real-time factors such as suspicious login locations, unusual access times, known vulnerabilities, or detected cyber threats?
   • Confirm that the solution can integrate contextual risk signals (e.g., geolocation, device posture, time of day,login behavior) into access decisions.
2. Regulatory Compliance
   Are you subject to standards like SOX, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, or NIST Standards that mandate specific audit capabilities and session recording?
   
   • Look for tamper-proof audit trails and full session recording with searchable metadata to satisfy forensic and compliance requirements.
   • Verify built-in report templates aligned to regulatory frameworks (e.g., SOX attestation reports, HIPAA access logs) to reduce manual evidence gathering.
3. Infrastructure Coverage
   
   • Confirm API-based integrations for programmatic provisioning of privileges in cloud-native environments, avoiding fragile proxy deployments.
   • Evaluate whether the solution can manage native cloud roles and permissions (e.g., AWS IAM Roles, Azure RBAC) alongside on-premises systems.
   • Check support for ephemeral credential management—such as short-lived tokens for Kubernetes or SSH access—to minimize standing credentials.
4. Risk Context Integration
   Is behavioral analytics and location-based access control necessary to strengthen your security posture?
   
   • Assess whether the platform can analyze user behavior patterns to detect anomalies, such as unusual login times or access attempts from uncommon locations, and respond accordingly.
   • Evaluate if the platform integrates vulnerability scan results, so it can flag or restrict access to systems found to have new security weaknesses, reducing exposure until those vulnerabilities are addressed.
   • Confirm support for adaptive MFA tied to risk scores, device posture, and network trust levels.
   • Validate visualization of risk events in a centralized dashboard, with drill-down capabilities for root-cause analysis.
5. Privilege Visibility
   Is discovering and remediating shadow-admin accounts and privilege sprawl a priority?
   
   • Ensure the tool provides graph-based modeling of identity permissions to reveal hidden escalation paths across nested groups, service accounts, and inherited roles.
   • Verify automated risk scoring of permission entitlements (e.g., toxic combinations, excessive privileges) with built-in cleanup workflows.
   • Confirm continuous monitoring for entitlement changes and automated alerts for over-privileged accounts.
6. Deployment Model
   Do you prefer cloud-native solutions with rapid deployment or need on-premises capabilities for specific compliance requirements?
   
   • For cloud-first strategies, prioritize SaaS-delivered PAM with minimal infrastructure footprint and automatic updates.
   • If strict data residency or low-latency requirements exist, confirm availability of on-premises or private-cloud deployment options with containerized or appliance-based architectures.
   • Evaluate total cost of ownership, including licensing, infrastructure, and operational overhead, against your organizational constraints.
7. Scalability & Performance
   Can the solution scale to support thousands of privileged users and millions of entitlement objects?
   
   • Benchmark performance for simultaneous access requests, large-scale access reviews, and real-time risk evaluations.
8. User Experience & Adoption
   Will the tool’s user interface and workflow design encourage adoption among IT, security, and business stakeholders?
   
   • Assess self-service portals for request workflows, approval notifications (e.g., via email, chatbots, mobile apps), and real-time status tracking.
   • Verify integration with existing ITSM tools and chat platforms (e.g., ServiceNow, Slack) to streamline approval and audit processes.
9. Ecosystem & Extensibility
   Does the PAM solution seamlessly integrate with your existing security environment?
   
   • Check for pre-built connectors with IAM, SIEM, SOAR, identity risk analytics (focusing on excessive permissions and orphaned accounts), and help desk ticketing systems to ensure continuous identity security and operational efficiency.
10. Vendor Viability & Support
    Is the vendor financially stable with a proven track record in both PAM and identity governance?
    
    • Review analyst reports, customer case studies, and industry awards.
    • Assess availability of professional services, training, and 24/7 support to accelerate deployment and troubleshoot issues.

Takeaways: How to Move Toward Modern PAM

The privileged access management landscape is evolving rapidly, with clear trends toward automation, risk-based decisions, and zero standing privileges. Organizations should consider these strategic approaches:

• Choose Opinionated Tools for Automation & Speed: Modern PAM solutions like BalkanID and ConductorOne that bake in just-in-time access and risk-based controls deliver better security outcomes than generic platforms requiring extensive customization.
• Identity Platforms Need PAM Bolt-Ons: While comprehensive identity platforms like Okta provide excellent foundation capabilities, they typically require additional PAM-specific tools to address advanced use cases like infrastructure access and shadow admin detection.
• Combine GRC Posture with JIT Enforcement: The most effective modern PAM strategies unite governance, risk, and compliance visibility with automated just-in-time enforcement. This dual approach provides both security and audit readiness without sacrificing operational efficiency.

The shift from traditional credential vaulting to intelligent access orchestration represents a fundamental evolution in privileged access management. Organizations that embrace this transformation will be better positioned to secure their critical assets while enabling the agility required for modern business operations.

Explore How BalkanID Unifies Identity Governance and PAM

BalkanID's unique approach to privileged access management combines risk-driven access control with comprehensive identity governance, providing security teams with the visibility and automation needed for modern threat landscapes. The platform's graph modeling capabilities and continuous compliance monitoring make it an ideal choice for organizations seeking both security and audit readiness in their PAM strategy.

Ready to transform your privileged access management? Discover how BalkanID's integrated approach can strengthen your security posture while streamlining compliance requirements.

Resources & Further Reading

BalkanID Lifecycle mangement Lite - https://www.balkan.id/solutions/lifecycle-management-lite
BalkanID Lifecycle Management- https://www.balkan.id/solutions/lifecycle-management

Note: The information and product comparisons provided in this document are based on publicly available data and vendor documentation as of September 2025. Sources include official product websites, user documentation, and industry reports. Features and pricing are subject to change. Organizations should verify details directly with vendors before making purchasing decisions.