Privileged Access Management

The PAM market is evolving to meet the demands of managing privileged access for machines, cloud environments and, at the same time, securing traditional privileged access risks. IAM leaders should focus on the features that differentiate vendors in this market.

Market Definition

Gartner defines privileged access management (PAM) as tools that provide an elevated level of technical access through the management and protection of accounts, credentials and commands, which are used to administer or configure systems and applications. PAM tools— available as software, SaaS or hardware appliances — manage privileged access for both people (system administrators and others) and machines (systems or applications). Gartner defines five distinct tool categories for PAM tools: privileged account and session management (PASM), privilege elevation and delegation management (PEDM), secrets management, cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) and remote PAM (RPAM).

Privileged access is access beyond the normal level granted to both human and machine accounts. It allows users to override existing access controls, change security configurations, or make changes affecting multiple users or systems. As privileged access can create, modify and delete IT infrastructure, along with company data contained in that infrastructure, it presents catastrophic risk. Managing privileged access is thus a critical security function for every organization and requires a specific set of procedures and tools. PAM tools focus on either privileged accounts or privileged commands.

PAM tools help organizations discover and onboard privileged accounts used by humans and machines. PAM tools secure these accounts by rotating and vaulting their credentials (e.g., passwords, keys), and brokering delegated access to them in a controlled manner. For interactive accounts used by people, PAM tools help provide multifactor authentication and explicit trust remote access through session control mechanisms to enable privileged account use without revealing credentials. For noninteractive accounts used by machines, PAM tools secure the handling of privileged credentials so that they are not exposed at rest.

PAM tools also provide command control by allowing only specific actions to be executed, and can optionally elevate a user’s privileges temporarily to allow the execution of commands in a privileged context.

PAM tools offer visibility and control over the usage of privileged accounts and commands by tracking and recording privileged access for auditing purposes. This includes detailed session recording to help understand not only who used which privileged account and when, but also what they were doing. The controls provided by PAM tools can implement just-in-time privilege management to enforce the principle of least privilege — users must have the right level of access to the right resource for the right reason, at the right time.

Report 2025

Here is a summary of the vendors featured in the Gartner magic quadrant 2025 report.
For the full analysis and detailed insights, you can read the report here and view the magic quadrant graphic here.

Market Status	Market Vendor
Leader	BeyondTrust
Leader	CyberArk
Leader	Delinea
Visionary	One Identity
Visionary	WALLIX
Niche Player	Keeper Security
Niche Player	Netwrix
Niche Player	StrongDM
Challenger	ARCON
Challenger	Saviynt
Challenger	ManageEngine
Challenger	Segura

Report 2024

Here is a summary of the vendors featured in the Gartner magic quadrant 2024 report.
For the full analysis and detailed insights, you can read the report here and view the magic quadrant graphic here.

Market Status	Market Vendor
Leader	Delinea
Leader	CyberArk
Leader	BeyondTrust
Visionary	WALLIX
Visionary	One Identity
Niche Player	Broadcom (Symantec)
Niche Player	Netwrix
Challenger	ARCON
Challenger	ManageEngine