Topic starter
25/06/2026 5:16 pm
TL;DR: Akeyless says legacy PAM architectures struggle to govern ephemeral workloads, multi-cloud estates, and non-human identities because static vaults and manual session handling do not scale across modern delivery pipelines. Privileged access is now a lifecycle problem for short-lived machine and workload identities, not just a session problem for human admins.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Akeyless: “Akeyless Modern PAM vs. Delinea: A Next-Gen Approach to Secure Access”.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when traditional PAM is used for cloud workloads?
A: Traditional PAM often breaks down in cloud workloads because it was built around discovery, onboarding, and event capture on stable systems, not ephemeral resources.
Q: Why do short-lived credentials reduce risk in modern PAM environments?
A: Short-lived credentials reduce the time window in which a secret can be abused, but only if issuance is tightly scoped and revocation is automatic.
Q: What signs show that a PAM programme is too dependent on manual processes?
A: A PAM programme is too manual when it still depends on ticket-based approval, static vault retrieval, session brokering that cannot scale, or separate tools for secrets and access logging.
Practitioner guidance
- Define PAM by identity type Separate human administrative access, workload identity, and machine-to-machine access in policy so the same PAM control is not forced onto all three.
- Replace standing secrets with short-lived credentials Use issuance workflows that create credentials only for the task window, then expire them automatically after use across SSH, databases, and cloud roles.
- Unify secrets and session governance Track where secrets are stored, where access is granted, and where sessions are recorded under one policy model so controls do not drift across tools.
Bottom line: Legacy PAM assumptions fit long-lived admin sessions poorly once access has to support cloud-native workloads and non-human identities.
What's in the full article
Akeyless' full article covers the operational comparison this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Feature-by-feature comparison of Akeyless Modern PAM and Delinea PRA across deployment, session control, and audit workflows
- Details on zero-knowledge design and Distributed Fragments Cryptography for privileged access governance
- Support notes for SSH, RDP, databases, Kubernetes, web apps, and cloud IAM workflows
- Operational claims about SaaS scalability, agentless session logging, and built-in compliance dashboards
👉 Read Akeyless' analysis of modern PAM versus Delinea PRA for cloud-native access →
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This topic was modified 5 hours ago by NHI Mgmt Group
25/06/2026 5:51 pm
Modern PAM is really a governance shift from session control to identity lifecycle control. The article’s core insight is not about remote access features, but about the fact that privileged access now spans human admins, machine identities, and workload identities. Static vaulting and manual session brokering were designed for slower, more stable access patterns, so they do not describe the operating reality of Kubernetes, CI/CD, or cloud IAM workflows. The practitioner conclusion is that PAM has become a lifecycle discipline, not just a checkout process for admin credentials.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 74% of organizations report identity-related breaches, and privileged access is a leading cause of lateral movement.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should teams govern privileged access across humans, workloads, and agents?
A: Teams should govern privileged access through one access lifecycle, not separate controls for each identity type. That means aligning discovery, approval, session control, and revocation so humans, workloads, and agents all follow the same authority model. If privilege cannot be traced end to end, teams do not have governance, only partial visibility.
👉 Read our full editorial: Akeyless Modern PAM vs Delinea PRA for cloud-native access
This post was modified 5 hours ago by NHI Mgmt Group