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25/06/2026 12:41 am
TL;DR: Hybrid support, least privilege, lifecycle automation, and Zero Trust alignment frame the 2026 IAM market, according to Delinea. That shift matters because IAM programmes now have to govern expanding identity sprawl without losing auditability or operational speed.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Delinea: Top IAM solutions for 2026, the leaders modern enterprises rely on
By the numbers:
- Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts.
- 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should security teams govern privilege-first IAM in hybrid environments?
A: They should classify privileged identities as a separate control tier, then apply tighter approval, session, and review rules than those used for ordinary workforce accounts.
Q: Why does continuous discovery matter for IAM programmes?
A: Because you cannot govern identities you cannot see.
Q: What breaks when IAM, PAM, and secrets management are governed separately?
A: Least privilege becomes inconsistent.
Practitioner guidance
- Map privileged identities separately from ordinary workforce accounts Create a distinct inventory for administrators, service accounts, API keys, certificates, and AI-related identities.
- Tie discovery to governance workflows Feed discovery results directly into access reviews, certification, and revocation workflows so hidden identities do not sit outside the governance loop between reporting cycles.
- Unify IAM, PAM, and secrets policies Define one entitlement model for human access, machine access, and privileged sessions, then map each enforcement point to that model so the same identity cannot be approved differently across tools.
What's in the full article
Delinea's full article covers the vendor-specific product context and positioning that this post intentionally leaves aside:
- The specific feature set behind its continuous discovery and access decision workflow
- How the platform groups human, non-human, and AI identities for operational use
- The platform-level explanation of privilege-first IAM and how Delinea frames it
- The product positioning around hybrid deployment, approvals, and user experience
👉 Read Delinea's overview of top IAM solutions for 2026 and privilege-first control →
Top IAM solutions for 2026: what IAM teams should re-evaluate?
Explore further
25/06/2026 9:40 am
Privilege-first IAM is now the right framing for identity governance, not a niche access model. The article reflects a market shift away from treating IAM as login orchestration and toward controlling the identities attackers actually exploit first. That includes privileged workforce accounts, service identities, secrets, and emerging AI-related access paths. The practitioner conclusion is that governance programmes need to prioritise blast-radius reduction over directory completeness.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface, according to Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
- Only 20% have formal processes for offboarding and revoking API keys, and even fewer have procedures for rotating them, which shows why lifecycle control remains weak in many programmes.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How can organisations tell whether identity sprawl is getting out of control?
A: Look for rising exceptions, repeated manual approvals, stale privileged identities, and access reviews that keep finding the same undocumented accounts. Those signals show that discovery and governance are not keeping pace with environment change. If hidden identities appear faster than they can be certified or removed, the programme is already behind.
👉 Read our full editorial: Top IAM solutions for 2026 expose the shift to privilege-first control
