How to succeed in your PAM implementation in five steps .

Implementing a Privileged Access Management (PAM) program is a critical step for organizations seeking to safeguard sensitive systems and data from unauthorized access. However, rolling out an effective PAM program requires more than just choosing the right technology. In this article, we explore five key questions that every organization should address to ensure a successful PAM implementation, from understanding the value it brings to managing it long-term.

1. What’s in it for us?

The first step is to understand the importance of a PAM program for your organization. Do you use insecure or traditional methods to access and protect privileged accounts? Does this compromise their security? A PAM program will govern and secure your privileged access, protect your privileged accounts, and ensure that only the right people have access to them. It can also monitor and react swiftly to misuse and help you comply with internal and external regulatory requirements. The list of benefits is long: you should define what they mean for your company and ensure a mandate from upper management and your CISO.

2. How do we win our people over?

A PAM solution will directly affect any employee who needs access to privileged accounts or critical resources. This will create noise within your company, at least initially. It is important to listen to your employees’ concerns and understand them. At the same time, you should build communication packages that highlight the positive aspects for the end-user community. To succeed with your PAM program, you need to support your people and keep them on board throughout this journey.

3. Where are the greatest risks?

A proper risk analysis is the basis of any successful PAM program. You cannot do everything at once, so you should start where the greatest risks lie. Is it in your on-prem AD domain, where, due to legacy and complexity, the number of privileged accounts is highest? Or is it in a fairly new cloud environment where it makes sense to build a Zero Trust/Just-in-Time solution from the start? Evaluation of your PAM maturity will also provide important insights and help you define the roadmap for implementing your PAM program.

4. Are our processes in place?

If you consider a PAM program to be just a technical solution, you will find yourself in a mess. There is no technology that can fix everything if it does not align with your governance. Thus, you must adopt a holistic perspective and build the processes first: How can you ensure new privileged accounts are on-boarded from the time of creation? How often should you rotate the credentials of these privileged accounts? Which sessions should be recorded? Should certain privileged accounts require approval before being used? Also, ensure that you can align your PAM solution with your existing company policies and infrastructure platforms.

5. What happens after implementation?

A PAM program must eventually be managed and maintained. That’s why you need to think long-term, even at the very beginning of your PAM journey. Do you need an external team to operate and maintain the PAM solution after implementation, or can you do this on your own? If you do not think ahead, you may find out too late that you lack a proper team to operate and maintain what you have implemented.

Implementing a PAM program is a journey that, when done thoughtfully, enhances your organization’s security posture and supports compliance with evolving regulatory demands. By addressing the key questions of purpose, employee engagement, risk prioritization, process alignment, and long-term management, your organization can lay a solid foundation for a successful PAM program that provides lasting protection for critical assets.

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