Traditional PAM platforms helped solve an important problem by securing privileged credentials inside centralized vaults. As infrastructure has become increasingly cloud-native, however, many organizations are discovering that managing passwords and secrets is only one part of the challenge.
This solution brief compares vault-centric privileged access approaches with modern identity-native authorization. Rather than focusing primarily on credential storage, it explores how organizations can reduce standing privilege, eliminate unnecessary secrets and evaluate access requests in real time using business context and policy.
You’ll learn where vault-based architectures continue to provide value, where they introduce operational complexity and how just-in-time access, short-lived credentials and policy-driven authorization address many of the challenges created by dynamic cloud infrastructure. The brief also discusses migration considerations for organizations currently using platforms such as CyberArk or BeyondTrust and looking to modernize their privileged access strategy.
For security leaders evaluating the next phase of their PAM program, this guide provides a practical comparison of traditional vault-led approaches and modern alternatives designed for today’s cloud and AI environments.
