CyberArk Privileged Access Manager Reviews

Our primary use case for his solution is privileged identity and application identity management, and we deploy the solution on-premises.

We have found the core features of the product most valuable, such as password management, session recording and vaulting.

The architecture needs to be improved. For example, the whole solution can come within a single software bundle instead of the distributed components we have for the on-premise deployments. I think there's room for improvements in that area because the competitors within that space have appliances and software that are just a single software. You don't have to split functionality across several servers like the current deployment.

We have been using this solution for approximately five years.

The solution is scalable. At the point of implementation, 300 users in our organization were using it, but that number may have increased.

The initial setup is not very complex because of my experience and skills. Still, the end users are only in charge of the administrative aspects, but I think the set up is a bit complex for those who are not very savvy with the solution. Implementation took approximately two weeks.

I rate the solution nine out of ten. The solution is good, but the main feature to be improved is having the product in a consolidated software bundle. So the moment we have PSM, it's a dedicated server. We can also have a PVWA in another server, so having a singular bundle is just like the cloud offering. The infrastructure is abstracted from the end user. So if we can have something like that for on-premises, that would simplify implementation. Regardless it's a good solution, it works, and the bank is happy with it. My recommendation to people considering implementing this product is to get the scoping appropriately done. It comes down to scoping the initial deployment, so it doesn't take forever. Still, if you're not scoping correctly, you could have a situation where people keep adding new accounts continuously, and your project never ends. Hence, scoping is kind of important.

We use this solution for ID purposes. When we remove a user from the server, we need a privileged ID password.

We are a University. It's a large organization.

It's not very different when compared with other products.

From what I can see, the Systems Integrator is useless. When I ask for the information, nothing is given to me. They need to provide better training for the System Integrator.

I have been working with this solution for two years.

Its' quite stable.

It's a scalable solution but could be improved. On a scale of one to five, I would rate it a four.

I have not used technical support.

The initial setup is pretty easy. It is not complex.

We used a reseller, integrators, but they were useless to me.

Pricing is quite high and it could be improved.

I would rate CyberArk Privileged Access Security a six out of ten.

We use it all.

• Privileged account access and management
• Credential rotation
• Access control
• Privileged session recording

CyberArk PAS helps ensure accounts are managed according to corporate policies. In short, it takes people out of the machine work of ensuring credentials remain up-to-date, and handles connection brokering such that human usage and credential management remain independent.

All of the features we use have helped our security posture in some way. All of these have their place in defining and supporting the security posture:

• Password management
• Session management
• Recording
• Access control.

Overall, I think it is a fantastic product, when used as designed and intended.

One of its biggest downfalls is also one of its biggest strengths. It is easily customized, and that customization makes it very easy to start trying to shoehorn the solution into roles it was never intended to fill.

All the high privileged accounts are managed by CyberArk at a regular frequency. This mitigates the big risk that we had for passwords not changing forever.

The combination of CPM and PSM resolves a lot of use cases.

They can do a better job in the PSM space.

It has been pretty stable. No ongoing issues; only one-off, and CyberArk support has been pretty good for support.

I can foresee some issues if we suddenly have to put thousands of passwords into CyberArk Vault. I know they have the password upload utility, but it has its limitations.

Customer Service:

Their support is pretty good and responsive.

Technical Support:

Their support is pretty good and responsive. Their L3 is in Israel, so sometimes it takes more time getting responses for complicated use cases.

I did not previously use a different solution. I have always used CyberArk.

I would rate initial setup as a medium complexity. They have good documentation, as well.

I am from a vendor team that does the implementation.

I was not involved in the pricing and licensing. I have an idea that it's on the higher side of the price scale.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated Dell and NetIQ.

I think that one of the advantages of the CyberArk PAS suite is that it is modular. On top of the basics, you can implement modules to:

• Manage (verify, change and reset) privileged passwords and SSH keys
• Manage (isolate and monitor) privileged session to the different types of devices
• Control Applications (e.g., malware)
• Detect, e.g., backdoor use, unusual behavior, and Kerberos hacks of privileged accounts
• Avoid/remove hardcoded passwords in applications/scripts
• Implement the principle of least privilege

Even those components can extend their operational area by use of, e.g., plug-ins, making it possible to manage about any kind of privileged account or session.

I see companies that already have thought about their privileged accounts, while others have not (to that extent). Implementing the CyberArk solution, it helps (and sometimes forces) these companies to think about their privileged accounts. Are they really needed? Who needs access to them? What kind of privileges do these accounts need (service accounts/log on accounts/etc.)? And so on. Thinking about these things helps customers to organize their data/privilege accounts in the CyberArk solution. It then helps the organizations to get control of their privileged accounts and to safely store and manage these, knowing that only the correct persons can access these accounts and that the different devices can only be managed via one central entry point to the datacenter.

With every version, I can see that the product wins on functionality and user experience. On the latter though, I hear from customers that on the UI level, things could be better. CyberArk continuously asks for feedback on the product (e.g., via support, yearly summits) from customers and partners, and hence, with version 10, they are addressing these remarks already.

The web portal (and hence the user interface) has some legacy behavior:

• Some pages are created for past-generation monitors. With current resolutions, filling the pages and resizing some elements on the pages could be handled better.
• They are not consistent with the layout of different pages. Some have, let’s say, a Windows 7 look and feel, while others have the Windows 8 look and feel.

Nevertheless, even with those remarks, it does what it is supposed to do.

I’m working as a partner of CyberArk for about four years now. I started on version v7.1 (currently on v9.7) and I have served about 20 happy customers.

As no software is perfect, I don’t think it is any different with CyberArk. Their support, however, is able to tackle most of the problems. Sometimes patches are distributed. The CyberArk solution highly integrates with different platforms (Windows/Linux) and applications (AD, SIEM, email, etc.). So, not configuring it well can result in unexpected behavior. You need to consider the limitations of the platforms it is installed on, as well.

As mentioned, one of the advantages of the CyberArk PAS suite is the modular build up; not only on covering the functional area, but also on size of your network/datacenter. If you, e.g., notice that the number of privileged accounts to manage increases, you can simply add an additional module/component that manages those passwords.

Their support is good. It is split up into different areas (technical, implementation, etc.) and I always have a quick answer. And they go all the way for their customers.

I saw customers using another product for their privileged accounts. Due to its limitations (e.g., on password and session management) and stability, they decided to switch to CyberArk.

This question goes both ways; initial setup can be straightforward and it can become complex. The architecture in the network and installation of the software itself is pretty straightforward. Most of the modules/components are agentless. This makes it possible to install the solution in the datacenter without impacting any existing devices (no impact on running systems, and simplifying change and release management). Integrating the systems (privileged accounts) in the CyberArk solution can happen gradually.

The flexibility of the product, on the other hand, has as a consequence that there is a lot to configure. Depending on the existing infrastructure and functional demands at the different organizations, care has to be taken to have a correct implementation.

As far as pricing, personally, I’m not involved in the sales part. So, I cannot elaborate on this topic. For licensing, I can advise the same thing as mentioned elsewhere: Start small and gradually grow.

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options (being a partner, not customer).

The Privileged Account Security product is a suite. That means that the product consists of different components/modules that cover a particular functional area (check their website) on privileged accounts. Plugging in more of those components in the environment results in covering a greater part of that area. Of course, there is a common layer that is used by all components. This is the security layer that holds and protects the privileged accounts.

Start small. Use first the basic components that, e.g., include password management. Gradually grow the number of components/modules/functional area to include, e.g., other types of accounts, session management, intrusion detection, end-point protection, etc. Having a project scope that is too large will make the step of using the solution too big. Make sure every stakeholder in the project is aware and let them gradually ‘grow’ with the product.

The solution is too complicated to use and should be simplified. It took me a long time to understand how to use it. There is a lot that the solution can improve for the future.

I used CyberArk Enterprise Password within the last 12 months.

The solution is stable and reliable.

We have approximately eight people in my organization that use this solution.

I did not like the solution at all and I was happy when we stopped using it.

I rate CyberArk Enterprise Password an eight out of ten.

Our primary use of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is to bring control on to the privileged access. For a while, there were individual IDs having privileged access. We wanted to restrict that. We implemented the solution so that it can be more of internal control. We can have session recordings happening and reduce our attacks.

There are two main ways CyberArk Privileged Access Manager Server Control has been helpful to us.

1. Any administrator using his own or her own ID and password to connect to the server or the domain that has been removed and the credentials for accessing the domain or the servers has been locked down into the password wallet, the access to it is controlled now through that group. Now we know who has access and what kind of access. Also, we control access through tickets. Unless there is an approved ticket, an administrator cannot just log onto a server and make changes. In this way, we are ensuring that an attack cannot just steal somebody's ADID and get into the server and create problems.
2. Through the application and team managers, we have removed the hardcoded user ID and password in our applications. Those are now in a password vault that is not known to anyone. The vault knows and changes the password, then connects the applications to the database.

The features that we find most valuable are:

• Enterprise Password Vault
• Privilege Session Manager
• Application Manager
• Team Manager

These modules help us in locking down the credentials, rotating passwords automatically without us having to worry about it, isolation of servers from the user machine and availability of privileged session recordings for us to check on demand.

I think that the connectors, the integration pieces, the integration to ticketing system. This is something which is not meeting our requirements via out-of-the-box solutions, so we have to look for a customized solution, that could be improved.

Integration with the ticketing system should allow any number of fields to be used for validation before allowing a user to be evaluated and able to access a server.

Additional features: We are looking at the connectors. The connectors to be more robust and provide more flexibility for out-of-the-box implication.

It's quite stable so we've not faced any problems so far and it's been working smoothly for us. Initially, there were some technical issues, disconnections happening, and the slowness was there, but we've been able to overcome those challenges. Now for the past 15, 20 days, it's been running smoothly.

The software is scalable enough, so if we want to add more domains, we can just go ahead and do it. I don't see a challenge with that. There are a couple of other parts of the solution that we are not rolling out, but we'll be doing that.

The support has been good. Turnaround times have been okay. They have not been immediate, but they do respond in a few hours, or in a day.

We didn't have a previous solution at the time.

AIM was a complex piece, but the install was straightforward. It took us around five months.

We went with an implementation partner for the deployment which included a number of admins. Currently, there are around 60 users but they are going to be 150 plus in a month or so.

We want the implementation partner for supporting it for the next three months, and then we will make the call whether we want to continue with them or maybe our resources should be good enough internally to support it.

The cost and licensing fees of the software are fairly reasonable.

There were a few competitors we evaluated like CA Technologies, Arcos, Oracle, and Microsoft.

My advice would be to plan ahead of time. Put up the plan for all the modules that you are going to implement. Look at what the dependencies of those are and plan for those dependencies in advance, then start the project.

Especially where it is the application identity manager, the AIM part, which is not only dependent upon the implementation partner but also the customer dev team to make the changes.

That's what makes it critical to plan ahead, ensure all stakeholders' commitment of their time and support, then start the implementation.

I would rate it nine out of ten.

CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault is important to do privileged session management, access a privileged access manager. Additionally, it is important to do segmentation in your core environment with the support team. For example, it is doing access monitoring support in our servers.

The privileged support manager is the most valuable feature of CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault.

The interface could be improved it is not user-friendly, but they have improved but it could still improve. In the policies configuration, it would be a benefit to have more details.

I have been using CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault for approximately five years.

CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault is stable.

I have found CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault not to be scalable. There are hardware limitations.

The technical support is very good and helpful.

The initial installation is difficult because of the configuration. The process involved with the privileged access cycle is not easy to connect the process with the technology from CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault.

I rate CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault an eight out of ten.