2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Privileged Access Management (PAM)

For the sixth consecutive year, BeyondTrust has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Privileged Access Management! This year, BeyondTrust was identified as one of only three privileged access management (PAM) Leaders. We believe this recognition further validates our strong position in this market, our unwavering commitment to innovation, and our ongoing commitment to delivering comprehensive solutions that meet the evolving challenges of our customers.

The 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management™ (PAM) identified some key trends underscoring the critical need for PAM solutions and driving adoption:

1. The increasing number of cyberattacks – In particular, Gartner noted several high-profile breaches closely linked to compromised privileged account credentials and privilege abuse this past year.

2. Cyber insurance requirements – According to Gartner, 15% - 25% of their clients who evaluate PAM tools for first-time purchase state they are doing so because their cybersecurity insurance requires the deployment of such tools.

3. Remote access for vendors and remote external IT staff – Gartner noted that enabling privileged remote access using PAM tools (rather than pure-play remote access tools without privileged controls) is the recommended best practice to meet requirements and mitigate security risks. Growing recognition of this best practice by organizations has resulted in increased sales of dedicated RPAM (remote privileged access management) tools.
   
   
   

Other market trends Gartner identified as continuing to drive PAM adoption include:

• Evolving market dynamics for new regulations

• Accelerated migration to cloud

• Automation enablement for DevOps

• The blurring of enterprise security perimeters

The Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ research methodology provides a graphical competitive positioning of four types of technology providers in fast-growing markets:

1. Leaders: Executing well against their current vision and well-positioned for tomorrow
2. Visionaries: Understanding where the market is going or have a vision for changing market rules
3. Niche Players: Focusing successfully on a small segment, or unfocused and outperformed by others
4. Challengers: Executing well today or may dominate a large segment, but do not demonstrate an understanding of market direction

In the report, Gartner® defines PAM Leaders in the following way:

“PAM Leaders deliver a comprehensive toolset for administration of privileged access. These vendors have successfully built a significant installed customer base and revenue stream, and have high viability ratings and robust revenue growth. Leaders also show evidence of superior vision and execution for anticipated requirements related to technology, methodology or means of delivery. Leaders typically demonstrate customer satisfaction with PAM capabilities and/or related service and support."

Gartner® evaluates Leaders on two axes:

1. Ability to execute

2. Completeness of Vision

In this year’s Magic Quadrant™ for PAM, Gartner® also highlighted that “PAM products are now mainstream. Many vendors added advanced functionalities in the past year either through native product expansions or through strategic acquisitions. IAM leaders should focus assessment on the advanced features that differentiate vendors in this market.”

Complementing the Magic Quadrant™, the Gartner Critical Capabilities for Privileged Access Management report offers deeper insights into the capability and sustainability of providers' IT products and services based on specific or customized use cases. Gartner® published these two reports on the same day. Both reports highlight key PAM capabilities and differentiators for consumers looking to invest in PAM vendors this year.

First, in BeyondTrust’s opinion, receiving recognition as a Leader for six consecutive years in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management™ is no small thing! In our view, consistent recognition as a PAM Leader in the Magic Quadrant™ report reflects our dedication to delivering comprehensive solutions that address the evolving challenges of managing privileged access and addressing privilege pathways.

We are now going to share what we think are some of the BeyondTrust highlights from both this year’s Magic Quadrant™ and Critical Capabilities™ reports.

The Four Categories for PAM Tools

In the Magic Quadrant™, Gartner outlines four distinct categories for PAM tools: privileged account and session management (PASM), privilege elevation and delegation management (PEDM), secrets management, and cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM).

1. Privileged account and session management (PASM)

PASM is a subset of PAM that focuses on managing, monitoring, and controlling access to privileged accounts and the sessions they initiate. PASM solutions typically offer secure password storage, rotation, and auditing, along with the ability to monitor and record privileged user sessions in real time to prevent misuse of elevated access.

BeyondTrust offers comprehensive PASM capabilities in our Password Safe and Privileged Remote Access product bundle:

• BeyondTrust’s Total PASM Solution - Addresses an expansive range of privileged account and session management (PASM) and vendor privileged access management (VPAM) use cases, including the ability to auto-discover and onboard accounts, store and manage all privileged credentials, log and monitor all privileged activity, and secure employee business passwords.

BeyondTrust received a product score of 3.92 out of 5 in the Critical Capabilities report for its PASM Use Case.

2. Privilege elevation and delegation management (PEDM)

PEDM refers to agent-based controlled privilege elevation for commands executed on Windows, UNIX/Linux or macOS operating systems. Across the industry, this solution set and PAM subdiscipline is also commonly referred to as Endpoint Privilege Management.

In the Magic Quadrant™ discussion of the market drivers for PEDM, Gartner® notes: “Malware and especially ransomware have been particularly impactful and costly for the market over the past couple of years. In this year’s PAM research, we have expanded the topics covered to PAM for endpoints.”

We believe the Gartner® Critical Capabilities™ for PAM report further delineates UNIX/Linux PEDM as an area for differentiation.

BeyondTrust’s Endpoint Privilege Management solution consists of:

• Endpoint Privilege Management for Windows and Mac – Allows users to remove local admin rights; dynamically enforce least privilege on Windows and macOS; block malware, ransomware, and identity-based attacks; and control applications seamlessly to maintain productivity without compromise.

• Endpoint Privilege Management for Linux – Empowers users to streamline compliance, control root access, enforce least privilege, and centrally manage zero trust security controls with a solution purpose-built for Linux.

BeyondTrust received a product score of 4.1 out of 5 for the Windows PEDM Use Case in the Critical Capabilities™ report, and a product score of 4.5 out of 5 for UNIX/Linux and macOS PEDM Use Case.

3. Secrets management

Secrets management refers to the practice of securely storing, accessing, and managing sensitive information, such as passwords, OAuth tokens, Secure Shell (SSH) keys, certificates, and encryption keys. It also encompasses secrets that are programmatically managed, stored, and retrieved through APIs and software development kits (SDKs) to facilitate authorizations and related functions between various nonhuman entities, including machines, containers, applications, services, scripts, processes, and DevSecOps pipelines.

In the Magic Quadrant™, Gartner® identifies secrets management as one of the areas vendors are making further investments in to address the necessity of securing privileged access in private and public cloud infrastructures.

The Critical Capabilities™ report similarly identifies secrets management as a differentiator among PAM vendors and suggests security and risk management leaders should: “Expand the scope and benefit of PAM programs by making full use of the features of PAM tools, especially secrets management features for DevOps use cases, and CIEM for infrastructure as a service (IaaS) entitlement visibility and rightsizing.”

BeyondTrust offers the ability to secure and control access to secrets used in DevOps tools, workflows, and CI/CD processes in a fully auditable, controlled environment. This functionality is fully integrated into our comprehensive privileged password management solution:

• Password Safe – Offers unified management of privileged passwords, accounts, keys, secrets, and sessions for people and machines, as well as secure, non-privileged employee passwords for business applications.
  
  

4. Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)

CIEM offerings allow for the governance of entitlements in cloud, hybrid, and multicloud infrastructures to help mitigate identity risks associated with access to virtual infrastructure. This year, the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ highlighted the fact that: “Many clients need to secure privileged access in their private and public cloud infrastructure, and we have seen the PAM market respond to this concern with new tools.”

CIEM was also evaluated in the Critical Capabilities™ report as an area for differentiation: “Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) remains an area for differentiation and innovation; visibility of entitlements in IaaS is something most vendors offer now, but most do not have substantial capabilities for entitlement rightsizing.”

BeyondTrust offers powerful and seamless CIEM functionality through two of our products:

• Entitle, helps organizations identify and minimize excessive permissions by granting just-in-time access, enforcing least privilege, and preventing privilege escalation in cloud environments​.

• Identity Security Insights® integrates CIEM with PAM and Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) to provide comprehensive visibility into identity-based threats. The solution secures both human and non-human identities across various environments, such as cloud platforms, SaaS applications, identity providers (IdPs), and on-premises systems.

In the Critical Capabilities™ report, BeyondTrust received a product score of 3.8 out of 5 for the CIEM Use Case.

Our View on Other Important PAM Differentiators

Remote privileged access management (RPAM)

RPAM refers to the management, control, and monitoring of remote access by privileged users such as administrators, contractors, or third-party vendors. RPAM solutions help secure and audit remote access to critical systems, providing visibility and control over the actions performed during privileged sessions. This helps reduce the risk of unauthorized access or misuse of elevated privileges from external sources. These solutions may typically fall within the PASM category.

As mentioned above, the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ states that: “The PAM market also continues to profit from interest in remote access for vendors and remote external IT staff. Enabling privileged remote access using PAM tools (rather than pure-play remote access tools without privileged controls) is the recommended best practice to meet requirements and mitigate security risks. This has resulted in increased sales of dedicated RPAM tools. Vendors, accordingly, have prioritized development of remote access over other features.”

The Critical Capabilities™ report went as far as to recommend that security and risk management leaders responsible for identity and access management should: “Maximize the value of [their] PAM investments by focusing vendor evaluation efforts on the most critical differentiating features, including account discovery and onboarding, and remote privileged access management (RPAM).”

• Privileged Remote Access - BeyondTrust’s pioneering RPAM solution is known as Privileged Remote Access, which we believe is the most mature such product in the market. Privileged Remote Access empowers users to create identity-secure, just-in-time access to all their enterprise environments, including cloud, on-premises, and OT.

BeyondTrust received a product score of 4.3 out of 5 for the RPAM Use Case in the Critical Capabilities™ report.

Customer experience

What we believe truly speaks volumes is the real-world impact we've had on our clients. With an impressive NPS score of 64 and a CSAT score exceeding 95%, we feel it’s evident our efforts align with customer satisfaction and excellence.

We also place a high value on customer feedback and feel having strong customer engagement is one of the best ways to ensure we can continue to innovate and expand our products to meet the real-world problems our customers face. This has led us to develop our BeeKeepers Community Platform, where customers, partners, and employees can collaborate and benefit from our shared knowledgebase.

Here’s what some of our customers have said about working with us:

• "Everybody tries to sell you the world and then gives you a little bit. BeyondTrust is different. They have given us more than we even knew was possible." --Tommy Green, VP of Information Systems & Technology, Amoco. Read the full customer success story here.
  

• "Over and above the expertise we would expect from a software vendor, BeyondTrust has provided us with hands-on support and helped us to think beyond this project towards future developments." --Benjamin Serre, Global CTO, MANE. Read the full customer success story here.
  

• "I was calling vendors looking for a fast trial that met HIPAA requirements and our security teams’ demands for safety. I wasn’t even a customer yet and your team [BeyondTrust] treated me like I was your ONLY customer. We have been able to meet the demands of supporting home equipment and getting people ready to work so they can continue essential operations for a health care system, while building out capacity for surge patients, all while keeping our backbone operational staff safe at home. We would not have been able to accomplish this without BeyondTrust." --Susan Flanagan Senior Manager, IT Service Delivery, Mount Sinai Nassau Hospital. Read the full customer success story here.
  

• "I wholeheartedly endorse Identity Security Insights as a game changer in the identity security space for organizations like ours, starting with on prem AD and then moving into a cloud-forward footing, Insights offers visibility that is unparalleled. Insights and all the other BeyondTrust tools serve as a shield to protect our digital kingdom, all our digital assets. And it has given us confidence in our security footing, as the road map for Insights is meeting every need we have now." --Anna Essex, Sr. Security Analyst, Polsinelli. Read the full customer success story here.

BeyondTrust's platform provides comprehensive solutions that evolve with the changing threat landscape. To make sure we are continuing to address the most critical real-world challenges for our customers, we continuously innovate and improve our products.

Here are a few of the product updates and innovations we’re most excited about from the past 5 months:

• BeyondTrust Entitle – “BeyondTrust Entitle has won the 2024 SC Awards in the Best Identity Management Solution category for its groundbreaking approach to managing permissions and addressing the risks associated with excessive privileges in modern cloud environments,” (SC Media). We believe this recognition provides strong validation of Entitle’s innovation to address modern challenges. Additionally, Entitle has introduced a highly anticipated feature that enables comprehensive session auditing without a proxy. By integrating external third-party audit logs with Entitle's JIT access, this feature offers enhanced investigative capabilities. Admins can track who did what with which permissions, who authorized it, and why, all without relying on video recording sessions.

• BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access – Continued innovations have worked to cement the product as the all-in-one secure access solution. Recent enhancements include launching Network Tunnels, which extends identity-secure access to solve for OT and IoT use cases with point-to-point VPN-like controls—no VPN required. Privileged Remote Access also unveiled per-session MFA, which brings an extra layer of identity security to your most sensitive assets, across all your environments.

• BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management – Endpoint Privilege Management introduced a new feature allowing end users to easily request temporary new application or system access directly within the product (or through ITSM tools via API). This occurs without requiring policy edits, and with approval happening right within the console.

• BeyondTrust Password Safe – Password Safe released several new features and capabilities to help you secure privileged credentials and secrets utilized by both human and non-human users. Disable-at-rest functionality now disables accounts when there is not an active request from Password Safe to enhance just-in-time security. FIDO2 was introduced, and Workforce Passwords Import was launched, allowing credentials from commercially available password managers to be imported into Password Safe, where they can be managed.

• BeyondTrust Identity Security Insights – Several new enhancements in Identity Security Insights were implemented to simplify the discovery of effective privileges and Paths to Privilege™ for human and non-human accounts across a broader identity landscape. Integration with on-premises Password Safe deepens coverage across endpoints, servers, and databases. New CIEM capabilities across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud offers visibility into risky privileges, interconnections, and control gaps. Out-of-the-box reporting highlights the top risks and security trends. The launch of a new EU cloud region expands the availability of this solution in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Be on the lookout for more big news that continues to make this the world-leading solution for managing and reducing enterprise identity attack surfaces.

• BeyondTrust Remote Support – Remote Support further advanced its ability to secure and scale service desks with three key updates. Updates to Endpoint Automation enable one-to-many actions. The addition of Multiplayer mode enables shared support sessions. Finally, the introduction of Per-Session MFA brings identity security to access workflows by enabling additional MFA prompts at the start of remote sessions.

At BeyondTrust, we strongly believe our success is amplified through our Partner Ecosystem, and we continue to build and expand our partner relationships and integrations. We've recently:

1. Expanded our technology alliance portfolio with leading cloud service providers

2. Launched a new partner program focused on enhancing PAM implementation and support services

3. Strengthened our solutions with multiple key integrations with strategic technology alliance partners

4. Enhanced collaboration with the full ecosystem to accelerate our customer success and deliver a faster-time-to value through tailored, integrated solutions.

Today, the scope of Privileged Access Management (PAM) continues to evolve far beyond its legacy definition. While securing and managing privileged access remains a cornerstone IT security capability, modern threats are exploiting identity security gaps that traditional PAM and other tools alone are insufficient to stop.

In recent years, attackers have increasingly found success in exploiting hidden and indirect privilege pathways to escalate access, move laterally across networks, and compromise identities and infrastructure. To stay ahead, organizations must extend their PAM strategy to address these pathways—both direct and indirect—that attackers target.

BeyondTrust’s approach to PAM goes beyond traditional methods. By addressing these Paths to Privilege, BeyondTrust offers a unique and comprehensive solution to modern cybersecurity challenges.

In our view, BeyondTrust's consistent recognition as a Leader in Gartner's® Magic Quadrant™ for PAM is a testament to our ongoing commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership. As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, we remain dedicated to providing cutting-edge solutions that address the most pressing privileged access security challenges faced by organizations worldwide.

To learn more about how BeyondTrust can help secure your organization's privileged access and privilege pathways, contact us today.

Continue Learning about PAM & Beyond:

• Access the full Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Privilege Access Management™

• Access the full Gartner® Critical Capabilities for Privileged Access Management™

• Buyers Guide for Complete Privilege Access Management

• Paths to Privilege Explained

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