Traditional PAM limits: what CyberArk vs. Delinea still leaves open

TL;DR: CyberArk vs. Delinea highlights the same core problem from two angles: traditional PAM can vault secrets, rotate credentials, and record sessions, but it still struggles with onboarding, offboarding, Kubernetes, and modern infrastructure access, according to StrongDM. The bigger issue is that privileged access governance now spans cloud, containers, and third-party workflows that legacy PAM models only partially cover.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by StrongDM: CyberArk vs. Delinea (Thycotic & Centrify): Which Is Better?

By the numbers:

• Our recent Access-Productivity Report found that infrastructure access affects the productivity of 64% of companies.

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams govern privileged access across cloud and Kubernetes environments?

A: They should require the same privileged access policy to cover servers, databases, containers, and third-party access paths, then verify that the tooling can enforce it without manual exceptions.

Q: What breaks when traditional PAM only covers vaulting and session recording?

A: The control breaks at lifecycle and scope.

Q: When should organisations prioritise PAM replacement over more tuning?

A: They should consider replacement when the tool cannot support the environments they already run, especially Kubernetes, cloud-native workflows, and delegated third-party access.

Practitioner guidance

• Inventory privileged access by actor type Separate human administrators, service accounts, automation credentials, and third-party access into distinct governance lanes so you can see where privileged scope and lifecycle differ.
• Test offboarding speed against real workflows Measure how long it takes to revoke access after a role change, vendor exit, or project completion, then compare that against the access paths actually used in production.
• Validate Kubernetes support before standardising PAM Check whether your PAM model can handle containerized environments without shared secrets, manual exception handling, or separate unmanaged workflows.

What's in the full article

StrongDM's full blog post covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• Feature-by-feature breakdown of CyberArk, Delinea, and StrongDM for teams comparing deployment models
• Pricing, support, and implementation notes that matter once you are past the governance question
• Product-specific guidance on database, cloud, and Kubernetes access patterns
• Vendor positioning on how their approach fits existing PAM and access workflows

👉 Read StrongDM's comparison of CyberArk and Delinea for privileged access teams →

Traditional PAM limits: what CyberArk vs. Delinea still leaves open?

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