One thing is clear: long-established security models lose their effectiveness when IT infrastructure and ways of working change. And the past few years have brought exactly that kind of disruptive shift. Home offices and remote teams have become the new normal in many mid-sized companies. Multi-cloud infrastructure, software-as-a-service, and DevOps tools are now integral to day-to-day operations. Yet when it comes to security solutions, many organizations still struggle to move forward. That is a serious issue—especially when it comes to one of cybercriminals’ favorite entry points: privileged accounts.

Adapting security strategies and software to new realities is essential across the board. But when it comes to privileged accounts, the need is particularly urgent. They are highly attractive targets for attackers because they provide significant power in a single move. Access to critical systems, sensitive data, and administrative functions can, in the wrong hands, lead to data theft, system manipulation, or even a complete business interruption.

The rise of remote work, cloud environments, and interconnected supply chains has dramatically expanded the attack surface for companies. And the more privileged access paths exist, the faster organizations lose visibility when relying on traditional solutions. Without modern controls, the risk of misuse, misconfiguration, and unnoticed access increases. Organizations of all sizes are therefore under pressure. They need to do more than just manage privileged access—they need to secure it dynamically, preventively, transparently, and in a compliance-ready way.

You may already be protecting privileged access in your organization. But it is worth taking a closer look. Not all PAM is created equal. This area, too, has evolved—and those developments are essential if you want to ensure truly secure privileged access. In many respects, older solutions are now lagging behind next-gen PAM.

Password vaults:
Admin passwords are stored in central vaults.

Drawback:
This solves credential storage, but not the problem of oversized and unnecessary permissions. Accessing credentials in the vault is also often unnecessarily complicated and inefficient.

Result:
Admins get frustrated.

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Session recording:
Admin sessions can be recorded for audit purposes.

Drawback:
This is essentially a rear-view mirror. If attackers misuse access, it often only becomes visible after the fact. And as a side effect, the huge volume of recorded sessions requires significant online storage capacity, with many solutions needing to scale across additional nodes.

Result:
Infrastructure and storage costs rise sharply.Recording: Für Audits lassen sich Admin-Sitzungen aufzeichnen.

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Permanent admin rights:
Whether needed or not, users keep their super-admin accounts.

Drawback:
These standing privileges create a large attack surface because they are rarely reviewed.

Result:
Both personal accounts and generic technical accounts remain permanently active, leaving unmitigated attack surfaces in place.

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Lack of automation:
Permission reviews are often still carried out manually and only at long intervals.

Drawback:
Rights are not adjusted or removed automatically and are updated manually only sporadically, so unnecessary privileges remain in place.

Result:
The organization moves further away from the goal of zero standing privilege instead of moving closer to it.

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Limited integration capabilities:
Traditional PAM solutions were developed primarily for classic on-premises environments and are designed to store or rotate static credentials. Integration options for containers, microservices, or other ephemeral target and source systems are often missing.

Drawback:
Managing rotating credentials becomes time-consuming, and ephemeral tokens are not supported.

Result:
Companies lack the flexibility and future-readiness needed to work with short-lived, ephemeral tokens.

Next-gen PAM solutions are built on a completely different foundation: zero standing privileges. In this model, there are no permanently assigned admin rights. Instead, privileged access is granted just in time, only for specific tasks. This added flexibility significantly reduces the risk of cybercriminals compromising credentials. The rigid access model—where employees can access entire systems at any time, even if they only need a very small part of them—becomes obsolete.

Modern solutions are cloud-native, API-capable, and integrate seamlessly into multi-cloud environments and DevOps workflows. Another important difference: secrets management is now part of next-gen PAM, which means machine identities such as bots and services can also be secured. At the same time, these solutions are easier to deploy and scalable—not just for large enterprises, but for mid-sized companies as well.

There is no question that this brings greater security. After all, the attack surface for cyberattacks can be reduced significantly. But for admin teams, the move also brings relief. Thanks to the automated granting and management of permissions, the manual effort involved in approvals is reduced—and efficiency increases.

Companies also benefit when it comes to compliance. Because privileged access and its administration become more transparent and everything is documented automatically in a verifiable way, requirements related to NIS2, DORA, or ISO standards become much easier to meet.

Another advantage of next-gen PAM is scalability. Whether for a global enterprise or a mid-sized business, the solution adapts to the organization’s needs and grows along with them. That also makes it future-ready.

Checklist: What next-gen PAM solutions need to deliver

• Zero standing privileges: Just-in-time access is the new standard. Permanent admin rights belong in the past.

• Context-based authorization: Rights are granted depending on role, time, location, and the specific task.

• Cloud and API readiness: Seamless integration is ensured across multi-cloud, SaaS, and DevOps environments.

• Secrets management: Credentials, tokens, and keys—including those for machine identities—are managed securely.

• Automation: Manual intervention is no longer required. Privileged access is granted and revoked automatically.

• Scalability: Business growth is no challenge—the solution can scale with it.

• Transparency and reporting: Every access event is documented in a traceable way, including evidence for audits and compliance requirements such as NIS2, DORA, or ISO.

• Ease of use: Both implementation and ongoing use are straightforward.

Budget restrictions, attachment to familiar systems, concerns about long IT projects—companies have no shortage of arguments against switching to modern security solutions. But in doing so, they risk leaving larger security gaps in place. In many cases, however, these doubts can be addressed quickly.

Next-gen PAM in particular shows that stronger security does not have to mean more complexity. With automated processes, fast implementation, and clear compliance evidence, protecting privileged access becomes both easier and more efficient. Organizations that take the step now reduce risk and create the foundation for a future-ready IT security strategy.