CyberArk Privileged Access Manager Reviews

There are many possible use cases, but in general, CyberArk permits users to target machines and rotate their passwords, and to record decisions. It is used to create security through PTA and to forward Vault logs and investigate events. It also enables users to access passwords in dev code without actually knowing the passwords. There are a lot of advantages to CyberArk.

As a consultant, I have seen a lot of CyberArk configurations. Sometimes we use the CyberArk Cluster Vaults with one DR. I also worked for a company that used only one vault, without a cluster, but they switched data centers when there was an incident.

I used to be a Windows and Linux administrator before I used CyberArk. The difference is that now it is simple for me to connect to my target machines. I can add them to my favorites, making access to the servers simple. 

CyberArk enables confidentiality. The passwords are stored in a fully secured Vault. If you want, you can access target machines without using PVWA. If you act as a remote desktop manager, you can register your connections and connect your target machines through the virtual IP and easily connect to your machines. Your connections and commands would all be registered to the Vault.

All the features of CyberArk are useful for me, but the biggest one is that CyberArk has logs for all the features. That is important when there is a problem. You know where to look and you have the information. In cyber security, the most important aspect is information.

Another valuable feature is that if you don't have access to a machine, you can see the machine in CyberArk. It's the management capabilities that CyberArk enables for a company that are very useful.

Other useful features are optional, such as recording decisions or rotating passwords.

The PTA could be improved. Currently, companies often have multiple domains and sometimes it's difficult to implement CyberArk in this kind of infrastructure. For example, you can add CPM (Central Policy Manager) and PSM (Privileged Session Manager and PVWA (Password Vault Web Access) for access, but if you want to add PTA (Privileged Threat Analysis) to scan Vault logs, it is difficult because this component may be adding multiple domain environments. 

CyberArk, as a solution, can easily adapt to a lot of environments, and you can add a lot of components to different zones, and that will work with the Vault. But not all the components, such as the PTA, can do so.

Also, it would be helpful if CyberArk added some features for monitoring machines when we access them. For example, they need to improve the PVWA. In general, when we don't use the PVWA, we don't have a lot of problems. For me, the PVWA is not perfect. I would like to see more features in the PVWA to administer our machines and to improve the transfer of data.

I have been using CyberArk Privileged Access Manager for more than three years.

I have implemented and maintained CyberArk solutions for clients, including creating administration functionality, such as platforms and support for users, so that everybody has 24/7 access to the account. 

I have also been involved in enhancing the solution by installing useful components and testing them. I would help analyze if a component could be of interest to the client and then implement it in production.

In general, I would help maintain the solutions and make sure that everybody can access the accounts, and that password rotation works.

I would rate WALLIX support at six out of ten, while CyberArk's support is a seven. The reason it's a seven is that we always have to send them the logs. Of course, we do get some response and they work on things, but sometimes we lose time on little tickets.

Neutral

If you have some experience, it is not complex to implement CyberArk. For me, the preparation is more difficult than the installation. Because CyberArk uses binaries, if you add good information, it will work. But if you miss something at the preparation stage, like the opening of the flows that you need, of course, it will be difficult. I know how the solution works, so it's not difficult.

First, you have to install the Vaults, and after installing them you can add PVWA to access the information. After that, you can install the PSM and then the CPM for the rotation, and that's it.

The time it takes to implement depends on the environment. Sometimes we work with complex environments and we have to adapt and collect all the information that we will need. We need to look out how the machines should be set up for the installation. It really depends on the size of CyberArk you want to install, including how many computers will be onboarded to CyberArk. There are technical and functional variables.

CyberArk is one of the best PAM solutions and one of the most expensive, but it works better than the others, so the pricing is fair.

I used to work on WALLIX Bastion, but CyberArk works better than WALLIX. WALLIX is a PAM solution, a French version, but when I was at another job I was a consultant on both WALLIX and CyberArk at the same time. That's when I saw that CyberArk is better.

It is simpler to upgrade the CyberArk environment and components than WALLIX. CyberArk has a user interface but WALLIX does not because WALLIX is installed on Linux while CyberArk is installed on Windows, making it user-friendly. Connecting is also simple with CyberArk. When a user connects to the PVWA, there aren't a lot of buttons. When users see the icon, they click "Connect" and connect. It is simple for them.

CyberArk can adapt easily to environments. For example, when we talk about connectors, CyberArk can easily connect to all the target machines these days. CyberArk can onboard network machines, Windows Servers, Linux servers, and Oracle Databases.

Web application passwords can be rotated. With its PSM and Selenium features, it enables the connection of a web application to CyberArk and rotation of passwords, so that it's not system accounts all the time. We can manage the web application accounts as well. CyberArk can also connect to the cloud.

When you work on CyberArk, you have to have more than one skill set. You are not just a PAM consultant because you manage passwords for all kinds of systems. You have to have skills in Windows, Linux, databases, and security because you manage those kinds of accounts. If you don't have those kinds of prerequisites, you can't work with CyberArk.

I started working on CyberArk when it was version 10.x and at this moment it is at 12 and more. The interface has changed and a lot of features have been added over that time. It's a good solution.

It is nothing but privileged access management. Most companies have servers, and for each server, they identify a generic ID to login. For example, if someone is an administrator, they will be using that ID to log in. So, we need to manage those IDs in a common repository, and that is why we have CyberArk PAM. CyberArk PAM is nothing but a common repository used to store passwords and manage them.

Managing passwords is a pain area in any organization. By using this tool, we have a set of policies and emerging technology where we manage these passwords.

It is a central repository. Therefore, if someone needs to access a server, then they go through CyberArk PAM. It provides a secure way to do this and CyberArk PAM records everything. For example, if you are connecting to a Linux server, then once you get into the Linux server and if it is integrated with CyberArk, it will automatically start recording everything that is being done. In most banks, seeing the recordings is very useful. If there are any gaps or something has happened which shouldn't have happened, then we can check the logs and videos. So, it gives security, in a robust manner, to the organization.

We have connected all the endpoints in our organization's servers. This has been an improvement. We are trying to connect any new servers being added into the organization to CyberArk PAM.

When it comes to PAM, it is always about compliance. It has a feature that enables you to access the password in a very secure way using encryption. You also need multiple approvals. For example, if you have access to CyberArk, it doesn't mean that you have access to the server. So, whenever you try to access that server, a request will go to your manager. Once he approves the request, only then will you be able to access the server. These are a few of the features that I like about this solution.

CyberArk PAM provides ease of access based on how they have designed it. It is clearly defined where you have to go and what you have to do. If you are an end user, it is very easy to use and provides a comfort level.

CyberArk PAM is able to find all pending servers that can be integrated, but we cannot get this as a report. We can only see the list of servers on CyberArk PAM. This is a problem that could be improved.

If you are an administrator or architect, then the solution is kind of complicated, as it is mostly focused on the end user. So, they need to also focus on the people who are implementing it.

I started using CyberArk PAM in 2016, so it has been almost six to seven years. I started with version 9, and now it is currently on version 12. So, I have used multiple versions of CyberArk.

Its scalability is good. It is available on-premise and they started having a cloud three or four years back.

Our environment is very small. We are managing around 2,000 users. Whereas, I have seen it managing users of 10,000 to 15,000 servers. We have around 30,000 users, and I have seen that kind of environment, though what I am currently managing is much less. When it comes to the Middle East, it is always regionally focused, it is not international. Our organization is specific to one country and not international.

The technical support is from the US. The only problem is that they reply during their own time zone. It has been a bit difficult to reach them, but we get the answers, they are just a bit delayed.

Neutral

We previously had Hitachi ID PAM. We switched to CyberArk because of the features and interface, where there is a bit of distinct difference between the two solutions. Though, the architecture is the same.

When you do an implementation, it is always challenging internally. While the setup is very easy because they give you tools for installation, you have certain things that you need to keep in mind when you implement it in an organization. These things become a kind of a roadblock. Every time that something comes up that you need to enable from the organization's side, e.g., if you have to unlock a few things on the organization's side, you must go through a process and some teams might not allow you to go ahead with it.

The deployment took three to six months.

For the deployment, we needed a solution architect, two consultants, and two people to work on the BAU. While it depends on your organization's size, we needed around five to 10 people to implement it. 

The ROI depends upon a company's capability to maximize the usage of this application. If you buy something, it is your responsibility to use it at an optimal level.

Previously, the pricing was very meager. They started publicizing and advertising the solution, growing CyberArk, as an organization. They also changed their pricing with that growth, e.g., the pricier the product, the more people who will purchase it.

Bomgar was one of its competitors, now it is called BeyondTrust. Another competitor was Thycotic. 

While CyberArk PAM has survived, it needs to be more flexible. They are currently focusing on the solution's GUI, but rather than the GUI, they need to focus on the solution's internal aspects, e.g., making the steps a bit easier. There are too many things to focus on and be aware of. So, they need to streamline it in a way where it is more compact.

You need to know the sizing of your company and not randomly use it, thinking you may need to use this solution in the future. You need to use most of the features, e.g., if you have 10 features, then your company should use at least seven features of CyberArk. If you are not going to use seven or more features, i.e., if it is below seven, you should not go for this tool.

We were using Secrets Manager for managing a few SSH files, but we are not using it anymore.

I would rate this solution as eight out of 10. CyberArk is a solution to problems being faced by multiple companies and organizations. It removes security threats and vulnerabilities from an organization in a secure way, and your credentials are handled in a secure way. Therefore, it solves this pain area in a company, and that is why I think they are one of the top tools.

We have clients that ask us to implement CyberArk PAM. There are two kinds:

1. Greenfield installation and setup. 
2. They already have CyberArk and want to extend their usage to protect different types of accounts and passwords.

CyberArk PAM protects privileged accounts and passwords. Privileged account means that those accounts have particular authorization that can span all the features of the system. For example, usually on network devices, they come out out-of-the-box with administrator accounts. Windows has an administrator account built-in so you need to protect that. Also, Active Directory has some accounts, like domain administrators, who can do whatever on the platform. These accounts are used for administration.

CyberArk stores and rotates the password/credential. They can rotate SSH keys as well. This protects the attack surface. By way of CyberArk, you can allow sessions, isolation, and recording. The main aim is to protect privileged accounts and their credentials.

I started with version 9.7, and now I am working with version 10.10, but the latest version is 12.

The automatic change of the password and Privileged Session Manager (PSM) are the most valuable features. With Privileged Session Manager, you can control the password management in a centralized way. You can activate these features in a session; the session isolation and recording. You apply the full intermediation principle. So, you must pass through CyberArk PAM to get access to the target system. You don't need to know the password, and everything that you do is registered and auditable. In this case, no one gets to touch the password directly. Also, you can implement detection and response behavior in case of a breach.

With CyberArk, you have a centralized store. With Privileged Session Manager, you can just look by the browser, looking through the name of the account, the name of the system, and the host name. In this case, you get the password and can then get through. Therefore, it is easier to get access to the system because it is easier to search the system for what you want using the user interface/browser of CyberArk. You also have an auditable action because the password is unknown to the administrator.

Some aspects of the administration need improvement, though they have recently made improvements to the API. However, the management with the interface and configuration are not so user-friendly. It has not changed much during all the years that CyberArk has been on the market. The management part, like platform management as well as PSM connectors definition and management, could be improved, even if it has already been done with the API.

Onboarding is always a difficult path for every PAM solution. It is not immediate.

We have been using it for six years, usually in delivery projects.

The stability is very good. There are no problems with it.

It has good scalability. Though, because the architecture is modular, you must plan a bit. In terms of performance, it is very scalable, but you need to pay attention to the architecture because it is not like having Kubernetes that moves laterally. While you can deploy it in a second, you need to be careful. 

They have a good response time. 

Sometimes, on the development side, for some components, it does not respond for PSM connectors and CPM plugins. They don't tend to take responsibility for those. While clients tend to develop some PSM connector and CPM plugin, I would like a more flexible response on these types of issues being raised. Because while I am developing those components, I am developing on their product.

Positive

We had clients who had quite a lot of SAP systems, something like 900. At first, their change management practice, i.e., the changing of the administrators' passwords was not so frequent, e.g., once a year instead of once a month or every two months. Their password management was usually done by storing those passwords on an Excel. Therefore, if they needed to connect to a system, they had to access the Excel file to find the machine and accounts to then receive the passwords for access to the system. This was unwieldy since they needed to look through an Excel spreadsheet with more than 900 entries. This is also not very secure since you have an Excel file with a clear password on your workstation. 

It was a bit complex because the architecture is complex. At the same time, this is also an advantage in relation to other competitors in the market because CyberArk's architecture is inherently secure. So, while it is a bit more complex to set up initially, it is necessary for reaching the security that other solutions do not give you.

The installation can easily be done. It is the architecture part that is complex, possibly because you need to size the machines. 

It depends greatly on the project. Usually, the best approach is a modular one. You start with a set of users, then move on to expanding the solution with size in mind. 

CyberArk's architecture is peculiar. It is the most secure on the market because they have a hard-end computer out of the domain that stores passwords with multiple cryptography. Then, there are the default components that dialogue with Password Vaults. Only CyberArk has this. The other solutions usually give you an encrypted database on an appliance, and this is a very different scenario. Therefore, CyberArk has an inherently secure architecture.

Broadcom PAM is not as stable versus CyberArk. 

Plan wisely and you will have a very good product. The approach should be modular and step by step. Start with the UNIX administrators, network device administrator, Windows administrator, and Active Directory administrator, then move onto more complex scenarios, like web server administrators, sub-administrators, etc. 

I would rate CyberArk PAM as nine out of 10. It could be more manageable.

We use CyberArk Privileged Access Manager for our customers who want to monitor and protect the access from the vendor side or the partner side. These customers want to cover external users who want to gain access.

What I found most valuable in CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is the Session Manager as it allows you to split the connection between the administrator site and the target site. I also found the Password Manager valuable as it lets you rotate the passwords of privileged users.

In the beginning, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager didn't have a multifactor authentication feature, so that was an area for improvement, but now it's part of the solution.

Having just one console for two CyberArk products would be good, particularly for the CyberArk Privileged Access Manager and the CyberArk Endpoint Privilege Manager, with the latter being a product for endpoint management that supports the workstations and allows you to manage workstations.

In the next update of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, it would be good to have a local agent where you can manage all users and processes, and have an agent on the servers such as Linux and Windows.

I've been working with CyberArk Privileged Access Manager for four years.

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is a stable solution.

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is easy to scale. You can divide the solution into different parts and connect them, then you can add a new feature, a new appliance, or a new system. The solution works.

In terms of the technical support for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, I sometimes contact the service engineer in this region. I also have access to the support portal which I use in some issues, but it's not so often. I found the technical support team very professional and I would rate support for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager five out of five.

The initial setup for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager was complex because, in the beginning, you must get the information from the customer such as how he wants to install it, how he wants to protect privileged accounts, how password rotation would work, etc., before you can install the solution.

The time it takes to deploy CyberArk Privileged Access Manager depends on several factors such as how many admins a customer has, how many devices, and the types of devices, for example, does the customer have servers such as Windows or Linux, some other network solution, or some applications, etc.? It could take between ten, fifteen, or one hundred days. My company needs to analyze at the beginning to define how long the process will take.

On a scale of one to five, with one being complex and five being very easy, I would rate the initial setup for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager four out of five.

I'm a technician so I don't handle the licensing for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, but I know that the price for the core license is about €140 per year. There's another type of license, the external vendor license, and that's about €600 and you can manage twenty devices. From what I know, the price for one device in a subscription is about €65 per year.

You can buy the CyberArk Endpoint Privilege Manager too, or you can buy some other application or application license with CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, but all other features, such as the Analytics Server is included in the basic CyberArk license. With WALLIX, you need to buy separate licenses for the features.

I've evaluated WALLIX, apart from CyberArk Privileged Access Manager.

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is a global solution that applies to all customers, from small scale to enterprise businesses, but the solution has a little bit more servers that you need for the installation. WALLIX, on the other hand, is just one appliance that focuses on small-scale customers. Its deployment is much easier because you just install one appliance with all the features inside. Deployment is easier with WALLIX versus CyberArk Privileged Access Manager which has a complex deployment. In the end, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager has more features that you can define or set up, while WALLIX has some limitations.

I'm working for a company that sells privileged access management solutions, including CyberArk Privileged Access Manager.

The version of the solution which I'm dealing with is an old version. Most of the deployment is on-premises, but my company will start cloud deployment for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager as well.

My company resells, implements, and also provides support for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager for the customers.

The solution requires upgrading regularly, and if there's a new system or application, you need to set it up for privileged access management on CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, so maintenance is important. Currently, in my company, five people work with the solution where there are about two hundred devices with fifty administrators. In the beginning, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager was for large-sized businesses. Nowadays, it's also used by medium-sized businesses.

I would recommend CyberArk Privileged Access Manager to others looking into implementing it because it's very important to protect privileged accounts in the company and do password rotation, so the hackers won't have a chance to detect and find the real passwords in the system. You can also use CyberArk Privileged Access Manager to protect external users and the admins from the direct connection to the server and after that, you can see what the users and admins do because the system makes video recordings and session logs. It's important to see what the admins do from time to time.

For me, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is the best product, and even Gartner says the same, so I would rate it a ten out of ten.

My company is a partner and reseller of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager.

Privileged Access Management is basically used to just keep track and log. We have to provision those accesses. If a newcomer comes, they have to be identified to ensure they are the correct users. So for those, there is a web implementation where there are some products that you can order, then they're approved. Depending on that mechanism, it's been decided, oh, this is a valid user. That's how it's been managed.

Privileged Access Management in CyberArk is one of the very first features that was implemented as part of Privileged Access Management. Then came Endpoint Manage and finally the Password Vault. From the very beginning, once Identity Access Management as a service started, with Dell One Identity Manager as the first service. Then came CyberArk. I don't think there is an additional benefit that it has brought. It's sort of an essential commodity in the entire Identity Access Management infrastructure.

For me, Privileged Access Manager and One Identity sort of merge together. For me, the best part of CyberArk is Password Vault and Endpoint, basically. If you ask me what's there that, it's that everything is pretty straightforward. There is no confusion. It's a pretty straightforward application to work on.

It is a scalable product.

The solution is stable. 

They should allow further customization as it's really hard to do any further customizations over CyberArk. We do have a wrapper of customization. However, it's very difficult, especially their web implementation. That's one thing I would say they can improve. With Angular and everything on the market, they still have their in-house web implementation tool, which is sort of a headache. 

I would love them to improve their UI customizing features. 

You simply cannot install the demo UI in every customer, basically. They would always ask for something to make their UI look a little different -  simple things like their logo or some sort of additional information pertaining to their particular customer. Even doing the smallest of changes takes a lot to do. 

The solution is stable and reliable. 

I haven't been faced with intermittent bugs like I do on One Identity.

With CyberArk, we rarely get those situations. It's a very, very stable software. You rarely need to raise any bug or service request with them.

It's pretty scalable. Although we haven't increased our infrastructure once, we have installed the latest version. Even then, adding other infrastructure items into the portfolio is not a big deal once you have done the initial installation.

Our organization is more than 30,000 to 35,000 people. However, only a handful of them are entitled to Privileged Access Management. There might be only 5,000 users. It is used quite extensively.

It sort of was implemented with One Identity Manager when Identity Access Management came into the picture. In early times when there was simply Excel as an identity access manager, and then there was nothing basically. Once there was the onset of proper identity access management without in-house custom tools or proper streamlining process, this solution was added. Initially, One Identity was sort of used as a Privileged Access Management also. However, soon they realized that it lacked in a lot of places for Privileged Access Management. That's when we went to CyberArk. That was way before my time.

I have been part of the initial implementation. However, the day-to-day operational tasks are being handled by a different team.

I was part of a migrational project. When I joined this organization, they were just migrating from the last stable version to the present stable version. It was pretty straightforward. There was, in my organization at least, documentation that was a bit more thorough to follow. That helped me a lot.

The implementation takes quite some time. Even in production, we have to instantiate the service. We had to take a special weekend, which means downtime since this is a critical application. Therefore, moving this takes some time. It's not that there are glitches and all. It's such a heavy application that requires moving so many things. For us, it took around nine to nine and a half hours roughly to deploy. This is considering if I take off all the in-between stoppages and breaks.

Privileged Access Management is a complex topic. I won't say that any of the tools are straightforward. That said, if you are thorough, then it's pretty straightforward for people who are in this industry.

I'd rate the setup process a four out of five in terms of ease of implementation.

With every security tool, new users learning by themselves is a bit difficult since the material isn't openly released. It's released if you have a partnership or if you pay for the software. That makes learning the tool a bit difficult. If you are interested in learning, the only thing is to get a job in that field. If your company is using it, it's like learning by doing. That's the only way you can learn about this product.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We are mostly rotating passwords and using PSM for remote connections.

It provides us with better security and control over our accounts.

It provides an automated and unified approach for securing access for all types of identities. This approach is important for us. The more things we have that can be automated, the easier it is to get things done.

It gives a single pane of glass to manage and secure human and machine identities across environments, which is important for us.

It saves time when it comes to onboarding new employees and providing them secure access to SaaS apps and IT systems. It probably saves a couple of hours.

The automatic rotation of credentials is probably the most useful feature.

It should be easy to use for non-technical people. Its interface can be a bit difficult. Some parts of its interface are not very intuitive. Some of the controls are hidden, and instead of having a screen with all the controls for that account on it, you have to use menus and other similar things.

Its documentation could be better. Some of the documentation lacks details for people who aren't super technical.

I have been using this solution for about six years.

It is stable. We never had any hiccups that were caused by CyberArk.

It is easily scalable. In terms of usage, it is being used by all of IT. We have over 500 users utilizing the solution. We're always adding new people and features, so its usage is increasing every day. We plan to implement more types of accounts. 

Their technical support is good, but some of their documentation lacks details for people who aren't super technical. I would rate them an eight out of 10.

Other than the regular Password Manager, they didn't have any real solution. They chose to look into CyberArk because it is a good security practice to have accounts automatically rotate and secure remote connections.

It is pretty complex, but they have professional services to help with that. It is complex because of all the security around it, all the hardening, and getting everything set up to communicate with each other. I am not sure about the duration of the initial deployment because I wasn't on the team then.

In terms of maintenance, it doesn't require a lot of people. Maintenance is just keeping up with patches. It is pretty stable and doesn't require a lot.

We used CyberArk's professional services. They were good, and they helped get everything set up. They also helped do upgrades.

It is in line with its competitors, but all such solutions cost too much money.

It is a good choice. I'm not sure if they're the market leader or not, but they seem to have the biggest footprint. I know there are a couple of competitors, but I've never used them. The other two that I know about are not as widely used, so there is a bigger community for support for CyberArk, and there is also CyberArk's support.

CyberArk is good as a technology partner for ensuring that we maintain a strong security posture throughout our digital transformation. It is a needed platform to have.

Given my experience with CyberArk PAM, to a colleague at another company who says, “We want to solve cloud security challenges with born-in-the-cloud security solutions as opposed to legacy solutions that have been adapted to the cloud," I would say that CyberArk is a good option for the cloud. That's because you don't have to worry about maintenance, and all the integrations are already in place. The different accounts that CyberArk can integrate with are already in place.

It doesn't really give a single pane of glass to manage and secure identities across multiple environments. It only gives visibility into CyberArk and how the accounts are working there. If something is wrong with an account, sometimes, you have to check other tools, such as Active Directory, or permissions.

We don't use CyberArk’s Cloud Entitlements Manager and Secrets Manager. We use CyberArk PAM to implement least privilege entitlements, and it is neither easy nor difficult to implement them. It is somewhere in the middle. The adoption of least privilege entitlements by using CyberArk PAM is also somewhere in the middle. If users aren't really technical, they would have problems with it.

It provides consistent controls to enable secure access, manage secrets, and implement least privilege at scale across our environment. It is somewhat user-friendly for people to just rotate passwords. Its interface can be a bit difficult.

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

The solution is primarily for security and access control. 

It's used to ensure and protect the complete IT infrastructure administrative account and the administrators and limit them to do any particular activities on the server and record all the activities on the server. it's for auditing purposes and for forensic usage.

We use it o identify if somebody internally hits the organization or tries to intrude and try to do a data breach or try to steal the information or do some kind of internal hacking. That risk can be eliminated using the tool.

CyberArk is one of the greatest platforms. It supports lots of requirements in the privileged access management area. 

From a configuration point of view, it is not very straightforward as per the deployment. The configuration is typical. However, when it comes to the integration piece, it has flawless integrations with lots of applications, whether it is out-of-the-box or customized. It supports any number of platforms. 

The company is very keen on looking at new applications to build out-of-the-box plugins. The support for the privileged single sign-on configurations with the application is excellent. 

Security-wise, the security is unbeatable compared to any other tool in the industry. They have a vault concept. They consider it similar to a bank vault. This is where they keep all the privileged admins' passwords. That particular vault has seven layers of security, which are unbreakable. It basically cannot be hacked. It cannot be hijacked. 

If something goes wrong, for example, if the vault is destroyed, your data is still protected. You can easily revive your data from that particular vault. It's a great capability. The security is excellent. It is very, very tight here. They support one signal protocol kind of communication with the internal products.

Where your password will be residing that is protected by a seven-layer of security. It has a web interface hosted on an IAS server on Windows. It has a CPM called central password management, which will do the password rotation. That is sitting on one other server. It has a session manager, which provides the single sign-on mechanism, privileged single sign-on mechanism, or automatic single sign-on to log into any infrastructure servers and applications. These are the four core products, and they integrate with each other and they integrate on one single port.  

If you try to intrude on the system or any hackers try to intrude the system, they will not be able to do that as the communication through this port is entirely encrypted. They will not be able to revive the data in real-time. It's a great security feature.

It supports hybrid deployments as well. It supports single standalone deployments for high availability with different kinds of deployment structures or topologies. This is a growing trend in the market. 

They can work on the pricing part. Its pricing is a big challenge here. When it started, the product came in at a very low cost. Now, they are the leaders in the market, so the cost has grown and is quite huge. 

I've used the solution for four years now. 

The solution is very stable. It's reliable and the performance is good. 

Every organization is different. Some are small, some are large, and some are medium-sized. This product fits all organizations. It is designed to be scalable. 

Technical support has been excellent overall. We are pleased with their level of service. 

The setup process is typical. It's not easy to set up. It depends upon the environment, the requirement, what the customer is looking for, et cetera. If, let's say, there's 1,500 accounts, which need to be protected and 10,000 servers, which need to be protected, the deployment can be done with the two-node setup. The two-node setup is okay. However, when it comes to the larger organization where we have lots of privileged accounts and lots of servers or when the account increases to 100,000 servers and 100,000 or 200,000 privileged accounts, in those cases, the product is complex.

You need to be well trained in order to be able to execute an implementation. 

The pricing used to be very competitive. I can't speak to the exact pricing. However, it is my understanding that it has gotten more expensive. 

I'm certified in CyberArk. Earlier, we worked with CyberArk as a partner. At this point, our contract is in a renewal state.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

It is a great product when it comes to security. From the security point of view, I would advise a new user to use this tool and deploy it in your environment since the security is unbeatable.

The primary use case of CyberArk is controlling privileged access. It is good at providing various privileged access controls. The CyberArk use case can be implemented on various platforms.

Password rotation is another key use case. There are many integrations available on the CyberArk Marketplace, plugins and connectors with different technologies to be integrated with CyberArk to achieve this use case.

I've had an experience of deploying CyberArk in on-premise and in the cloud.

For any use case, session management is a key because it isolates users' machines to the target system. That way then, if an attack happens on a user's machine, the privileged session is still an isolated session. The privileged session is not interrupted.

In general, all CyberArk's features are very useful from a privileged account control point of view, and for session management and password rotation. 

The biggest feature is the security of the overall solution. It's very secure. The vaulting technology and the number of security layers involved in the vault, where privileged accounts are actually stored, is the heart of the solution.

There are many other important features of CyberArk: 

• Privileged Session Manager (PSM) connects you to the target platform. 
• Password management (CPM) provides automatic password rotations, including password verification and reconciliation. 
• Auditability, which means CyberArk keeps track of logs and audit trails, including session recording, which is another key feature. 

The password management enables the rotation of passwords per an organization's policy. Passwords can be rotated after N number of hours or based on a particular day. It's a very key feature from a security point of view, because passwords are meant to be rotated very frequently. CyberArk does it very well with different plugins.

More than the product itself, there is room for improvement in the documentation. The documentation should be very detailed and very structured. It has a lot of good information, on one level, but I feel that it could be more elaborate and more structured. That would make it easier when somebody is implementing it or referencing the documentation.

I have used CyberArk Privileged Access Manager for approximately seven years.

It is a very stable and reliable product.

It is scalable and scaling it is straightforward. It has been designed and planned well, making it easy to scale the environment.

We have frequently worked with CyberArk technical support. In the last year their support has been changed. I would rate it at about seven out of 10. It depends on the person who picks up the support ticket. If that person is fairly proficient in his experience, the response will be quick. Otherwise, it can take time. But, in general, it's good.

Neutral

The complexity of the initial setup depends on the organization's underlying infrastructure, on the environment in which the development is happening. Sometimes the environment on which the product is being installed is more of a challenge than the product. That plays a key role. And, as I mentioned, it's a bit of a challenge because of the documentation at the moment. It needs to be much more user-friendly

The time for deployment also depends on the environment in which the product is being deployed. The technology landscape is very complex. With an end-to-end implementation, it can vary depending on whether the environment is small or medium or complex, and what types of use cases are involved. If it is just a simple environment and minimal features need to be configured, it can be straightforward and take a few days. But if it's a really large-scale, complex environment, where multiple integrations are required, because the underlying requirement to deploy CyberArk with other applications is complex, it will definitely take longer.

Generally, I don't get involved in the licensing or the purchasing side of it, but I do know that the licenses are expensive.

It's a long journey and it needs to be set out in phases very well, starting with something small and gradually implementing PAM controls across whatever multiple technologies an organization uses. It's a long-term project to fully deploy and benefit from all of CyberArk's features. 

Rather than being about the product, it's more about the overall PAM journey that a company decides to take. It's a very complex world, integrating multiple applications within CyberArk. There are various technical complexities involved, not with CyberArk, but with the other products. 

But it's worthwhile. CyberArk does its job very well. All the components are very useful and the benefits are all evident. CyberArk is the number-one PAM solution.