Three Signs You’ve Outgrown Password Vault

Privileged Account and Session Management (PASM) software, better known as password vaulting, is a type of Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution that helps organizations manage accounts by restricting root access to their environment. These solutions are invaluable for protecting data.

However, as your organization goes through change and expansion, you may find that your password vaulting solution is suffering the brunt of your growing pains. Below are the signs to look out for that it’s time to consider adding another type of PAM solution—Privilege Elevation and Delegation Management (PEDM)—to help your organization as it continues to grow.

1. Your organization has multiple types of environments. 

Password vaulting software is not all purpose. It tends to work better with general Windows applications, switches, routers, and storage devices. Vital components, like UNIX and Linux server environments, as well as certain critical Windows apps, don’t fare as well with password vaulting technologies, as the workload tends to require an impractical level of work from IT admins. Allowing root access to powerful server environments with sensitive information understandably requires careful, time consuming session monitoring to ensure that data isn’t put at risk or undesired changes are made. PEDM solutions are perfectly suited to fill these gaps in coverage, as they are designed with these environments in mind and don’t require nearly as much monitoring on the part of admins.

2. Your current solution is overburdened.

The bigger the organization, the more requests a password vault will receive for root access. This strains not only the software, but the administrators tending to the software as well. Overtaxing a password vault can not only slow it down to a crawl, it can cause dangerous errors to occur. For example, one company experienced a 20% failure rate with root password changes. PEDM solutions are proven to operate better for larger environments, as password redistribution at scale is not required. This will prevent inevitable strain on your password vault that will occur as your organization continues to grow.

3. You want increased protection. 

Security experts have stressed that reliance on password protection is no longer enough to ensure security particularly for organizations utilizing cloud technologies. Even a password vault can be cracked, leaving systems vulnerable to breaches. Utilizing granular access controls that assign privileges based on who needs access to each part of a system, as well as what they can do with that access  to implement the alternative approach of assigning limited privilege based on job role, PEDM software provides an invaluable layer of protection.

All of this is not to say that you should get rid of your password vaulting solution. As organizations grow, and expand, access management becomes a puzzle, that no one piece of software can complete. These signs are instead indicative that your organization is in need of an additional piece, in the shape of a PEDM solution, which can cover critical parts of your environment, completing your security picture. Core Privileged Access Manager (BoKS) is an award-winning PEDM solution that protects your most critical systems and data with centralized account management and privilege enforced by granular access controls.