Symantec Privileged Access Manager Reviews

I work for a service provider company, and we implement Symantec Privileged Access Manager solutions for our clients, which include various banking and mining clients.

We have implemented both the remote access and credential management features. The agent-based credential management solution allows clients to programmatically use the agent to collect passwords during runtime from Symantec Privileged Access Manager. The password management solution and password rotation policy using third-party certificates are easy to implement.

We are using this solution to give access to the infrastructure environment to IT people and consultants. Access to the servers is only through PAM. One of the reasons to use a PAM is to manage Linux and Windows passwords, so it takes care of those accounts.

As global admins, there are six people working on this solution, but I'm the only person managing it as an admin.

It's currently on-prem.

It's easy to use and easy to configure. Compared to BeyondTrust, it's a little complicated.

Transparent login for users of privileged IDs (Linux, Windows). This prevents sharing of the password because it is never seen.

Once we implemented the solution, we found that support groups were sharing the Root password with some application teams to facilitate implementations and upgrades. The applications required Root due to software requirements or other issues. This process was never documented and therefore was unknown. We are now working on getting these applications under proper controls. They will either need to use PAM if Root is still required or proper access will be implemented where Root will not be required for day to day support.

We are using Symantec PAM to manage privileged accounts across servers, devices, networks, and applications. It is crucial for managing admin users and controlling privileged accounts. We have also integrated it with CA strong authentication for enhanced security.

Using Symantec PAM makes it easier to deploy rather than BeyondTrust or other competitors. It is easy to implement and stable, which helps us manage deployments successfully over large numbers of servers and devices.

I have been in the security business for almost 30 years. We have never had a solution in place where we could really manage and control privileged accounts in the company. This solution really makes a big difference. We started rolling it out for our Linux base. It has been invaluable to us already, and it has only been a year.

We are a multiplatform shop, so we have Windows, Linux, mainframe. The mainframe piece of it is coming along, but we would like to see a little bit more integration with the non-CA mainframe component, such as RACF. That is what we use, but they have more features which are coming out in the next month or so, which is a huge. They are listening to their customers. I think that is great, but they need to do a little bit more on the mainframe side.

It is for all admins. We need to have a two-factor authentication. So for that, we are using the PAM, Privileged Access Manager product called Xceedium.

We have just put it in QA, so it will go live in production by March or April. 

It will provide us with more security. Anybody who has access can only get it. It makes admin access more critical. People are not building service accounts. 

It will provide more security and monitoring. 

I mostly do support for the product so I’m aware of all the features this product offers. I like the fact that passwords are checked-in automatically. In case you forget to release the account so that other people can use it, it keeps the account secured by changing the password automatically.

You can do A2A integration. You can have your own script, which can then run outside of PA to retrieve the password and perform other tasks.

It has CLI commands for bulk changes. I’ve used that feature to on-board thousands of accounts, and it saved time and effort rather than doing it manually.

PA is a global vault application which is essential in our day-to-day tasks is retrieving and using privileged accounts. Also provides a nice logging and notification to management as well as audit.

• High availability/stability
• Flexibility
• Security
• Excellent support

We need a solution that is very reliable for our users. We need something that has the ability to handle requests for network ports and various configurations. Security is one of the highest priorities and part of that is tracking/auditing. Xceedium/CA PAM support has been excellent and that is one of the main reasons we have stuck with this solution. We have had the same core team supporting us over the years and they work with us through any issues.

Centralized firewall rules (through the appliances) make it easier for users to access our secure environments from a variety of locations and devices. The release of the CA PAM Client eliminated the Java vulnerabilities and support issues with browser access.