Symantec Privileged Access Manager Reviews

Some of the valuable features are safe access to company resources, quick, comprehensible, and intuitive management interface, and good integration capabilities. Control on targets could be extended through CA PAM Server Control component. It now includes an optional risk evaluation engine (CA Threat Analytics for Privileged Access Manager).

• Quick setup
• Support for different types of existing user stores
• Management automation through REST interface
• Integration with Identity Management solutions easily for automatic user provisioning.

I would like it to support more types of integration.

We have used this solution since CA acquired Xceedium.

There were no stability issues.

There were no scalability issues.

I would give technical support a rating of an eight out of 10.

Many customers switched to CA PAM, because the list of useful features quickly expands.

The deployment was very fast, as it is commonly deployed as a virtual appliance.

Contact the sales department.

We evaluated Hitachi ID PAM and IBM PIM.

Proceed!

Access control and Password Management, because almost every customer wants to protect and audit their server(s), as well as their credentials.

When a customer uses CA PAM, they can control who can access their server and what they do. So they feel more comfortable when using outsourced engineers to manage their assets.

Reporting, Logging, and support recording for Web App using Java.

Now, the reporting feature on CA PAM only shows the basic information in white-black table format. If I’m a customer, I like to see the reports with colorful charts and pictures.

About the Web App using Java:

Currently, CA PAM only can record and work with a Web Console that doesn't use Java. If a Web Console uses Java and has a pop-up, CA PAM can’t do a recording.

Over three years. I used it before CA acquired Xceedium.

The CA PAM appliance works stably. I didn’t see many errors related to stability.

Not yet.

I appreciate CA technical support. They respond quickly.

No, I didn’t.

Simple for me.

No, I didn’t.

The CA PAM product can help companies/organizations who looking are for Privilege Access Management. CA PAM is an industry leader; a powerful, easy to use solution.

Manager user/admin’s password, so it’s more secure and password will be changed on time.

When there’s new patches or upgrades, please test the new release well, so it won’t break the functional parts.

It’s very stable, unless we do some patches or upgrade, then it’ll break some functional parts.

So far, no.

So far, it's fair. Because sometimes, it takes me a few days/weeks to get attention.

No.

I didn’t get involved in the initial setup.

I don’t handle that.

I didn't get involved in that evaluation, either.

Have a test environment for testing any upgrades/patches first, before pushing it to production.

Transparent login and cluster synchronization. This is quite stable compared with other products. It is easy to manage for the administrator.

After the CA acquisition of Xceedium, I was able to see a lot of improvement in technical support.

There are a lot of gaps in the documentation. The documentation has to improve like anything else. There are a lot of things which are not covered in the documentation, and there are a few things which are covered in the documentation, but are not clear.

To mention the features which are not covered and which are not clear would require a separate document. Here are some examples:

• Authentication methods: PAM does support a few authentication mechanisms to login to PAM. But the documentation does not have the details of how to integrate TACACS+ in PAM. The documentation explains it at a very high level.
• Application Connectors: PAM does support different application connectors. But for CISCO devices, the details are not clear.
• Roles and Privileges: There are almost 200 privileges in Credential Management. There is not a document which has the details for the privileges and their functionality.
• Segregation of Duties: There is not a document for PAM roles. For example, if the user has “Standard User” as a role, he cannot have “Approver Role” from CM. It is a limitation in PAM. This limitation might be due to security or operational functionality. But it should be documented if it is limitation of PAM.

We have been using this solution for two and a half years.

I faced stability issues in the past, but I have not faced any stability issues lately.

I have not faced any scalability issues.

I would give technical support a rating of 6/10.

We did not use a previous solution.

The setup was straightforward.

There are currently other tools on the market which are much cheaper than PAM. They can do almost all of what PAM does, and even do it better. CA can think of reducing the pricing for PAM.

We did not evaluate other solutions.

The tool helps us manage local, domain, and service accounts. It helps us meet compliance standards.

The fact the password is changed after each checkout beats changing passwords manually every few months.

I would definitely like to see improvements in the documentation. It is very plain and doesn't provide details. They are no screenshots either.

We owned this product for about three years. I took over the project about six months ago.

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

I did not encounter any issues with scalability.

Few people I've dealt with know the product well. They are not very helpful. Some technical support team members don't have much knowledge.

I don't think DSS used any other solution prior to this.

I didn't do the initial setup, so I can't answer this question.

I'm the admin and do not know anything about pricing and licensing.

I personally have used RPM and think it is more user-friendly.

Be prepared to call tech support a lot because the documentation is almost worthless.

So far, we’re using the RDP-gateway and the “published application” features.

• The RDP-gateway: For limiting which server an operator can access.
• The “published applications” feature: To minimize the exposure of sensitive usernames and passwords.

The exposure of sensitive usernames and passwords has been limited in a massive way. This allows us to give much needed access to LDAP servers and databases without the operator knowing the username and/or password. They just have a link to click on after logging into the PAM virtual appliance.

I’m no fan of Java as an application front-end, as it tends to have issues depending on what browser one’s using. Have nothing further right now due to limited exposure to the more technical parts of the product.

We’ve had it running for approximately six months so far.

No issues so far, except the typical Java/web-browser problems that all Java-based products have.

Do not know as of right now, as we only have one instance in production at the moment.

So far, I would rate it high. I have gotten fast and accurate answers to my questions and any issues have been resolved in a timely manner.

We used the now discontinued Shared Account Management component of CA Privileged Identity Manager.

The initial setup is really easy. The only thing to worry about is to add all needed networks to your virtual appliance prior to the initial boot. This is a pain and should be fixed in my opinion.

I do not know as I only work with the technical parts of the product, I do not worry about pricing and licensing.

Make sure you have all your network needs mapped out prior to installation, as you have to add all needed networks to the virtual appliance prior to the first boot.

One of the most valuable items is the load balancing feature.

The live session recording is still not in the features.

We have used this solution for over a year.

There were no issues with stability.

There were no issues with scalability.

I would give technical support a rating of 7/10.

This is the first solution.

The setup is one of the advantages of CA PAM, as compared with the other solutions.

We evaluated CyberArk, BeyondTrust, and Dell.

The implementation of this product is not a problem and is simple.

Our clients are generally enterprise businesses, mainly in the financial sectors. We are resellers and I'm head of the security business unit. 

The best features are the comprehensive coverage of the required features for the PAM solution like a credential vault, a session recording, an endpoint agent, security analytics. All those things. 

I think the management console could be improved. I have just watched a demo video for the management console and I think it may need to be simplified. I haven't yet had hands-on experience with the solution so it's difficult to comment on possible additional features. 

I've been using this solution for two months. 

The stability looks okay. 

Scalability seems to be fine. 

I haven't used the support because I've relied on the documentation until now. I think there could be some improvement with that. 

I would recommend that anyone thinking of using this solution carry out a proof of concept first.

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.