We use the product to store system accounts.
Vice President - Global Head of Privilege Access Management, Data Services and Certification at Barclays Capital
Helps to store system accounts
Pros and Cons
- "CyberArk is a good and adaptive solution. It is easy to adopt and install. It is easy for every use case."
- "The challenge with the product is pricing since it's expensive. It also needs to improve the customization. We encountered some stability issues as well."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
CyberArk is a good and adaptive solution. It is easy to adopt and install. It is easy for every use case.
What needs improvement?
The challenge with the product is pricing since it's expensive. It also needs to improve the customization. We encountered some stability issues as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for more than 10 years.
Buyer's Guide
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager
October 2025

Learn what your peers think about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
870,623 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the solution's stability a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My company has more than 20,000 users for the product. I would rate the product's stability an eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We have a direct connection with the CyberArk leadership. However, the tool's support is not user-friendly. They will charge you for premium support and push you towards it.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used BeyondTrust before.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's setup is easy. There were some challenges while managing from environment to environment. We experienced some glitches during the installation process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product's licensing is yearly. I would rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the product an eight out of ten. We only have the licensing contract with the product and everything else is managed in-house with a team size of four members.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Assistant Vice President at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Lets you ensure relevant, compliant access in good time and with an audit trail, yet lacks clarity on MITRE ATT&CK
Pros and Cons
- "I'm no longer the product owner for PAM, but I can say that the most useful feature is the vault functionality, which keeps all your passwords secure in a digital vault."
- "When I was a component owner for PAM's Privileged Threat Analytics (PTA) component, what I wanted was a clear mapping to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a framework which has a comprehensive list of use cases. We reached out to the vendor and asked them how much coverage they have of the uses cases found on MITRE, which would have given us a better view of things while I was the product owner. Unfortunately they did not have the capability of mapping onto MITRE's framework at that time."
What is our primary use case?
I work with the infrastructure access team in my organization and we have CyberArk as a primary solution along with a number of components for Privileged Access Management (PAM) and monitoring within the privileged access sphere.
We began with CyberArk in 2018, when we procured the licenses for CyberArk and all its components including the PAM suite and Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM). Our management took a call and we had to do a proof of concept to evaluate the product and see what it was capable of. As a product owner, I had six months to complete this. We evaluated a few specific use cases and presented our findings of the CyberArk's capability to management around the end of the third month.
Since then, CyberArk's Privileged Access Management is still our central solution for the entire estate, including all our servers (Windows/Unix), databases, devices, and so on, with around 5,000 to 8,000 users globally. Essentially, all access is managed through Privileged Access Management. That said, I am not sure to what extent all of the findings were carried forward after our initial evaluation because a lot of changes have happened within the organization. Our overall threat assessment, criteria, and even the framework has changed, now leaning towards a Zero Trust kind of strategy.
For instance, even for the tools that are used within the Privileged Access Management suite, there is a tighter alignment towards enterprise architecture, and we currently have a highly-evolved enterprise architecture group from which everything is driven. Earlier, individual units would have had their own licenses to see what they can do with them, but now things are more closely aligned with the overall enterprise architecture strategy. Given this, some of CyberArk's tools such as EPM have somewhat dropped off from the list of our priorities.
As for how we have deployed CyberArk, it's currently all on-premises. We do have a roadmap for transformation to the cloud, but I am not sure what kind of place CyberArk will have in that, as it depends on the enterprise architect's view on the cloud transformation. We have had some discussions around what to do about the cloud portion of our assets (e.g. VMs and such), what kind of monitoring we need, and so on, and I think that, among other apps, Splunk will likely become part of our toolset when it comes to the cloud. I believe we are also evaluating CyberArk's Cloud Entitlements Manager on this roadmap.
How has it helped my organization?
From a functional point of view, I would not have a concrete idea of how CyberArk has improved our organization because that information is better provided by someone from the operations team. Those kind of evaluations are typically done at a much higher level, probably at COO or a similar level, and they have a close alignment with the enterprise architecture group.
On a practical note, with CyberArk there is integration with your identity management system such that, when done properly, you can ensure that anyone from an administrator to production support personnel will gain the relevant access they need in good time. PAM offers integration with Active Directory, LDAP, and so on, and is fairly compliant with these kinds of approaches to identity.
What is most valuable?
I'm no longer the product owner for PAM, but I can say that the most useful feature is the vault functionality, which keeps all your passwords secure in a digital vault.
The second most useful feature is the monitoring of your privileged sessions. So you have an audit trail, where any privileged access session has to be authorized, and you have access to all the relevant monitoring controls.
What needs improvement?
When I was a component owner for PAM's Privileged Threat Analytics (PTA) component, what I wanted was a clear mapping to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a framework which has a comprehensive list of use cases. We reached out to the vendor and asked them how much coverage they have of the uses cases found on MITRE, which would have given us a better view of things while I was the product owner. Unfortunately they did not have the capability of mapping onto MITRE's framework at that time.
PTA is essentially the monitoring interface of the broker (e.g. Privileged Access Management, the Vault, CPM, PSM, etc.), and it's where you can capture your broker bypass and perform related actions. For this reason, we thought that this kind of mapping would be required, but CyberArk informed us that they did not have the capability we had in mind with regard to MITRE ATT&CK.
I am not sure what the situation is now, but it would definitely help to have that kind of alignment with one of the more well-known frameworks like MITRE. For CyberArk as a vendor, it would also help them to clearly spell out in which areas they have full functionality and in which ares they have partial or none. Of course, it also greatly benefits the customers when they're evaluating the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using CyberArk Privileged Access Management since 2018.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
CyberArk's PAM does what it's supposed to do, based on the interactions I've had with the folks from operations. There are the usual operational challenges, but it fulfills its basic purpose.
Stability assessments are conducted by a separate team that does risk assessments, so I don't have a lot of insight into this aspect, but considering that the product has been running for quite some time now and it's still the central solution for access management, I would reckon that it's a pretty stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are different categories out there when it comes to scalability. In the case of bringing in new target systems, then sure, you can bring in what you need based on your licensing criteria. In terms of bringing in target systems which are not covered by the list of connectors that you have, this too is possible as there is scope for customization. Overall, I think it's fairly scalable and it does give decent support on the scalability front.
Our onboarding is progressing smoothly and at a steady pace. With the onboarding, you have new users coming on, and because it's a central solution, the rollout is global. There are even plans for extending the department in terms of increasing the redundancy of components, which is largely determined by operational performance reviews and so forth.
How are customer service and support?
In my personal experience as product owner assigned to various components, there have been challenges with the support at times. I would say that it has scope for improvement.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used a similar solution, but it was closer to a desktop password manager kind of tool. It was made by IBM and it was something you could actually install on your desktop and manage your passwords around that.
Later on IBM developed the tool into something more enterprise-oriented, and it turned into what we would classify as a privileged access management solution. But otherwise, CyberArk was probably the first fully-fledged solution in this sphere that I have used.
How was the initial setup?
The initial part of the setup was quite good. When it came to Windows, we had success in the beginning stages, but later on we had to have a number of discussions with CyberArk with respect to the 'groups' nomenclature, as we wanted to have a very clear standard that could be used consistently throughout the organization.
The first iteration was mostly fast and easy, however at one point we realized that there was much more detailing needed to be done. So we went through another iteration with a more detailed design and came up with more comprehensive coverage of groups, or roles, as you might say. In total, I think it was around two years before the Windows part was comprehensively addressed, but after that, it was covered quite quickly.
Before CyberArk's PAM, we had a legacy tool that was managing the privileged access for Windows and we had that decommissioned around this time, which was a victory of sorts.
What about the implementation team?
The first step of the implementation strategy was putting all the passwords in the vault, thereby securing them. We also had a tool called Application Identity Manager, which we used for mitigation of the hard-coded passwords. Only after the vault was in place alongside Application Identity Manager, were steps taken to deploy the PAM suite.
Back in 2015, we had about three or four full-time CyberArk Professional Services folks undertake an effort to implement it, but that project failed. All that was achieved was the central vault deployment, and I think they also had Application Identity Manager installed at the time, but nothing apart from that. So it didn't take off the way it was supposed to, possibly due to a misalignment with the top management and the enterprise architecture viewpoint. But later on, and toward the second half of 2016, things started picking up again and further steps were taken from 2017 onward to deploy the Privileged Access Management functionality.
Throughout the PAM deployment, there was a fairly large vendor team that we were working with. I reckon the vendor team size was around 45 to 50 people. Within the organization, there was another large team that was supporting with various roles, such as in engineering, architecture, operations, governance, and so on. In total, there were around 50 of the vendor's team and maybe 20 to 30 roles from within the organization. There were other layers of responsibility, such as the risk team, but all those were kind of on the outside of the deployment.
What was our ROI?
I don't have much access to the facts and figures surrounding ROI, but I would reckon that with the Zero Trust risk strategy that we have, the product does match some of our key challenges. For one, we have the vault solution, so the passwords are safe up there. And then we have brokering in place for some of the key platforms, so I would say that these positives, along with our strategy and roadmap, will decide the fate of the future of CyberArk within the organization.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm aware that the organization had purchased licensing for almost all of CyberArk's solutions including licensing for PTA, EPM, and the Application Identity Manager. But when it comes to PSM, this is one of the components where there's an additional charge for any extra PSMs that you want to deploy. I believe that there's some rider where the vendor has a bit of leeway to, at times, charge a premium on whatever additional services you may require above the board.
What other advice do I have?
Based on my experience as a product owner, I would advise, firstly, to set up an enterprise security architecture as authority within the organization, and ensure that it is closely aligned with your business. Once that is set up, then the enterprise security architecture should determine the priorities of the business and, accordingly, you can lay out a roadmap and strategy.
From a product perspective, CyberArk may or may not fit into your organization based on what strategy you have detailed, or it may or may not fit your requirements. So I would definitely not recommend purchasing the tool first and then determining what to do with it next.
Regarding automation, we are adopting DevOps for the positives it brings, such as cost savings, efficiency, etc., yet there needs to be some checks and balances. Having a fully automated solution would require you to think through the security aspects very carefully. That is why alignment with the enterprise security architecture is of great importance when it comes to securing access across environments in an identity management solution.
CyberArk's PAM is based on the concept of identity, such that a user logs in with his or her identity. So whatever systems the user accesses, there is an audit trail that is tied back to that same identity. This can happen across multiple environments based on factors such as the separation of duties, where certain engineers may not be allowed access to certain areas of development. These checks and balances occur when we give access to those kinds of rules and permissions. There are some targets we have for automation, but if it's fully automated it wouldn't be all throughout our organization as we have found there are some pitfalls with full automation.
Now, when you bring the cloud into the picture, as with our own transformation roadmap, you can't just put a tool in front of you and then expect everything to fall into place from on-premises to the cloud. It does not work that way. You need to have a sound strategy from your enterprise security perspective and only then can you ensure that things will fall into place.
Concerning the UI, PAM has an administrative dashboard and everything, but from a monitoring perspective, we also rely on additional tools apart from what CyberArk offers. For least privilege and managing secrets, there's a tool from CyberArk for that, but I'm not sure we have any plans on using that solution.
Overall, I would rate CyberArk Privileged Access Management a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager
October 2025

Learn what your peers think about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
870,623 professionals have used our research since 2012.
CyberArk Product and Vendor Contract Manager at UBS Financial
Great session management, password management, and temporary access capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The credentials management capability is key to ensuring that the credentials are kept secure and that access to them is done on a temporary and event-driven basis."
- "The product is very vaulting-focused. I'd love to see it expanding its capabilities a bit further into areas like just-in-time elevation, and access with non-vaulted credentials."
What is our primary use case?
We use CyberArk to secure the last resort accounts by introducing dual control approval, ticket validation, temporary access, and regular password rotation.
It also allows us to introduce location-aware access controls with multiple sites having access to specific location-protected content.
Finally, the session management capabilities allowed us to introduce delegated accounts to secure access to all sorts of devices in an easy way, but without losing the individual traceability.
How has it helped my organization?
It allows us to comply with the regulator requirements allowing us to operate in the different countries and to fulfil the security and compliance requirements.
In the end, it secures all the highly privileged accounts and protects the company from internal and external threat actors.
The solution is multifaceted and includes session management, password management, temporary access, ticketing validation, API access, single sign-on integration, load balancing, and high availability principles.
What is most valuable?
The credentials management capability is key to ensuring that the credentials are kept secure and that access to them is done on a temporary and event-driven basis.
The session isolation reduces the risk of exposure of the credentials and applying simpler network controls.
Web access allows the introduction of location-aware controlled access so that different locations can only access the data that is allowed to be retrieved from their sites allowing centralisation but fulfilling the regional requirements.
What needs improvement?
The product is very vaulting-focused. I'd love to see it expanding its capabilities a bit further into areas like just-in-time elevation, and access with non-vaulted credentials.
The upgrade options are good but could be further simplified.
The high availability options could be improved, and the load distribution as well for both the vaults and the credentials managers.
The web interface should allow having multiple sites for location-aware access control within the same web server.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for more than ten years.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Security Engineer at Suraksha
A highly scalable PAM solution that needs to improve its GUI
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it's the best in the market. I haven't seen any other PAM solutions better than CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault."
- "CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault's GUI has certain shortcomings that need improvement."
What is our primary use case?
My company uses CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault for privileged access management, a domain that the product fits under. CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault involves password rotations, recording of sessions, keystrokes, and securing sessions, which all come under the same category in the solution.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it's the best in the market. I haven't seen any other PAM solutions better than CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault.
What needs improvement?
CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault's GUI has certain shortcomings that need improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault for two years. I use the solution's latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution, but sometimes its GUI lags if the load gets too much. If you try to click some buttons, responding will take five seconds instead of just responding immediately.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a highly scalable solution.
My company has around 500 uses of the solution and 3,000 to 4,000 accounts, which can be scaled up to 10,000 or 15,000 accounts.
My company does not have plans to increase the usage of the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I am not an admirer of the product's technical support team. The product's technical support team doesn't know the product well enough to give customers suggestions, so they need to work on that part.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
BeyondTrust and LastPass were the two solutions I had used in the past.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault is quite complicated, but if you follow the documentation, I don't think you should have any issues. The issues are only with the solution's support team and the GUI.
The initial deployment just takes about five days to a week if you have got all the network architecture right.
If you don't get the network architecture right, then the deployment could take two or three weeks.
For the deployment process, you should ensure you have some open IP ranges because CyberArk needs to talk to the cloud at its end, so you need to allow certain IPs to make certain connections, after which you need infrastructure and servers in place.
There is a Zip file for your environment, like an image you download from their website, which CyberArk's partners can access. Once you download the Zip file, there are a few scripts to run, and if the scripts run properly, your environment will be set up properly, after which you deploy the connector.
There is a need for an architect who is an expert in CyberArk and networking for the deployment and maintenance, along with one senior engineer.
What was our ROI?
The ROI for the solution is good because if you deploy the product, then you will not face any issues for five to ten years, especially if you manage it well.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Payments have to be made on a yearly basis toward the licensing costs of the solution.
I would say that the solution is expensive because it's only preferred by the top-tier companies involved in banking or insurance who have no problem with budgets for their cybersecurity. A medium or small-sized company would prefer to use some other solution over CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
was not part of the evaluation process in my company. I wouldn't know why my company chose CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault over other products. I can say that I am comfortable with CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution to those planning to use it. I suggest that CyberArk's potential users invest in getting their own IT environments working perfectly before involving a team of CyberArk-certified engineers since it makes the process a lot easier. If you don't follow the aforementioned steps, then you will find yourself going back and forth to the product's support team, which will take you ages because they take time to respond.
I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director, CyberSecurity at ASHBURN CONSULTING LLC
Great credential rotation automation and privileged session management with helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The ability to develop and deploy applications with no stored secrets is very valuable."
- "The greatest area of improvement is with the user interface of the Password Vault Web Access component."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for the full automation of tens of thousands of credentials across hundreds of different integrations. Our use case includes Windows, Linux, networks, security, storage, mainframe, and cloud (both Software as a Service and Azure platform based). In addition to the credential rotation, we use credential providers and privileged session management to greatly reduce the use of passwords in the environment. Users authenticate using MFA, Multi-Factor Authentication, and are able to access systems based on Role Bases authentication rules.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution has improved security posture while greatly reducing administrative burden. We leverage CyberArk to deploy applications without the use of secrets.
Applications authenticate securely to CyberArk using a combination of certificates and other extended application-identifying parameters to promote a secure DevSecOps environment.
The extensibility of CyberArk has enabled us to develop custom integrations into Microsoft Azure leveraging KeyVault to synchronize on-premise and cloud secrets in a consistent hybrid credential management architecture.
What is most valuable?
Credential rotation automation combined with privileged session management are great aspects of the solution. It enables highly complex passwords that the end user never knows or sees. We have some use cases where administrative users will log in to highly privileged systems using a one-time use secret and immediately following their administrative session the password is rotated
The ability to develop and deploy applications with no stored secrets is very valuable. This keeps code repositories free of secrets and application authentication is centrally controlled and monitored.
What needs improvement?
The greatest area of improvement is with the user interface of the Password Vault Web Access component. The latest long-term support version of CyberArk (12.x) still includes and still leverages the version 9.x UI in order to maintain some of the administrative functionality.
The performance of the 9.x UI leaves much to be desired and there are still some administrative tasks that require the use of a thick "PrivateArk" client.
Many improvements have been made over time, however, there is still work needed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution has been quite stable for many years and includes the functionality for clustering the multiple site replication, both of which we leverage for a high level of uptime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable, however, with scale, there are certainly performance considerations.
How are customer service and support?
Support has been a mixed bag. First-level support has been extremely time-consuming to get to an escalation resource that can help us resolve our reported issue. In all fairness, we have a very experienced staff and generally only contact support for more complex issues. There have been improvements made over the years and the commitment to improving support. Still, there is work needed in that department.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
Setup depends on the complexity of the solution. A simple configuration could be up and running in a day.
What about the implementation team?
Our environment is run in-house by a contract team with expertise in CyberArk. However, we do leverage the vendor for major upgrades and have used their technical account manager services in the past
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Good notifications, solid support, and agentless architecture
Pros and Cons
- "I find value in notifications from CyberArk when passwords fail verification and have other issues."
- "The current interface is not very intuitive."
What is our primary use case?
CyberArk PAM is used to secure passwords and remediate audit findings. CyberArk PAM is used to manage access to passwords, rotating these after use or on a regular basis, and verifying the passwords on the system match what is in the vault on a regular basis. Passwords are managed in this manner on both Linux and Windows servers.
How has it helped my organization?
CyberArk PAM ensures that passwords on Linux servers are highly secure, regularly changed, and completely auditable. This saves enormous amounts of time when responding to audits and security concerns. And the scheduled verification of passwords ensures that passwords remain available when needed and stay secure. CyberArk has become the standard tool for password management.
What is most valuable?
I find value in notifications from CyberArk when passwords fail verification and have other issues. Investigation of these issues often uncovers other issues. The way safe security is handled is outstanding and makes it easy to provide safe access to those who need it and deny safe access to those who should not have it.
Another valuable feature is the agentless architecture of the product. Using native processes to manage passwords and not having to install and update agents is a huge plus.
What needs improvement?
A more friendly and functionally complete user interface would be nice to have. The current interface is not very intuitive. It is somewhat clunky and difficult to navigate, and many times have to toggle between the somewhat underdeveloped new interface and the older classic UI. This state of basically having two interfaces is a prime opportunity for CyberArk to improve its product.
Also, it would be nice if the vaults could run on Linux instead of Windows.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with CyberArk for more than ten years in various capacities ranging from end user to safe/vault administrator to application administrator.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is incredibly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not run into any scaling issues.
How are customer service and support?
CyberArk support is pretty solid.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is more complex than simple, however, not daunting.
What about the implementation team?
We worked with the vendor team who were very knowledgeable during the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The PAM product isn't low-cost, however, it is worth it. Go with a longer-term agreement to realize lower costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
CyberArk PAM was chosen before I got involved so I am not aware of which other products were evaluated. However, we have never had to go back and review the decision to use CyberArk.
What other advice do I have?
Use CyberArk professional services when needed. They are very knowledgeable and experienced which means engagements have a high success rate.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PAM Security Consultant at Cybersec Consulting
A versatile product that can be configured with a number of different components
Pros and Cons
- "CyberArk has a lot of modules."
- "The technical support is very poor."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution for administration. If the customer requires Alero or HTML, we will deploy the solution in that particular environment. Otherwise, if the end users are accessing the solution via VPN or from inside the network, we will not deploy Alero or HTML. We will instead focus on CyberArk's core PAM, which includes the vault password rotation component, the web interface component, the jump server, and PPA. These are CyberArk's four main components which we deploy for every customer.
What is most valuable?
CyberArk has a lot of modules, such as Enterprise Password Vault, which is the heart of the solution and needs to be up and running at any time. Privileged accounts and session recordings get stored inside the vault itself.
Likewise, we can configure high availability for the vault, like an active/passive or an active/active configuration. Replication disaster recovery is also supported.
CyberArk is also capable of rotating the credentials for a lot of endpoints. It has the CPM plugins by default for password management, Windows and Linux, as well as databases like Oracle and MS SQL, and can also rotate to some network devices like Cisco 9000.
We have Privileged Access Management, a general server between the user's and the target's machine. All of the sessions go from that server to the target endpoints. Once the end user disconnects the session, the session recordings and live monitoring will be uploaded to the vault. That recording will be stored for 180 days for auditing.
Another component is Privileged Threat Analytics. It detects any threats on target machines. For example, an end user might connect to a Linux endpoint and try to run privileged commands. Those commands are customizable and can be defined in the PTA as well. Whenever those users run those particular commands on the target, the PTA will report suspicious activity and report to security admins in the organization via mail or even on the web portal. We have a separate tab for security.
Within security events, these particular suspicious activities will be detected as threats and attain a risk score, "This is the user who connected to this particular target and ran these particular commands or applications."
CyberArk has a remote access solution called CyberArk Remote Access Alero. CyberArk also supports HTML gateways so that users can connect from outside the network without a VPN connection.
The solution has many advantages, such as the user interfaces and remote app features when using local applications when sessions are getting established over RDP, SSH, database, and web browsers. It is easy for administration as well.
What needs improvement?
Password management for all the endpoints needs improvement.
CyberArk can handle password management for Windows, Linux, databases, and network devices. However, there are solutions like Tenable or Skybox, Palo Alto, and other security devices for which we cannot provide password rotations on CyberArk. CyberArk should look into development for those particular plugins. I heard they had developed them, but they are not widely available. So if, for example, a customer requires CPM's password management plugin for Tenable, they need to send a request to CyberArk themselves so that the CyberArk team will then sell it to the customer. It does not come with an implementation license. It's a separate thing that a customer needs to purchase. CyberArk will assign it to that particular customer ID, and that plugin will not be supported for other customers. But those are their business tactics. They will not reveal all their plugins, only the basic ones.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have worked with CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault for four years on a regular basis.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the solution's scalability an eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very poor. We handle implementation for our clients, so we do not handle support after. We do the knowledge transfer and if they face some challenges, we will show them how to troubleshoot as well as the documentation. We provide everything to the customer as they are not experts in CyberArk.
If the customer faces any issue, they will raise a case with CyberArk in the technical portal. But once they raise a case, CyberArk will not respond.
Let us say I opened a case this morning. Initially, they will respond, "I am the technical expert handling this particular case. Please provide me the logs." Their first reply will be that they want the logs. The customer will then gather the logs somehow and attach those logs to the case.
However, it will take two days for technical support to investigate their logs and reply. Even after two days, they will reply, and will say, "I am transferring this case to the higher level expert" that is, L2 or L3, "they will get back to you."
The initial reply will be given by the L1 engineer who doesn't know the product or how to troubleshoot that situation, so every case will go to the L2 level or L3. The time taken in the process is too heavy. So even if I open the case as a "severe" case, even if it is not severe, they will reply to say that this particular case is not severe, so I have to keep it as "medium" or "low." As a result, customers consider hiring support from my company.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
With CyberArk, we have the direct installer file and setup files for each component, such as Password Vault Web Access, CPM, PSM, and PTA. The implementation engineer should install every component. We also need to have servers for each component. We need to request a set of servers per the architecture and the components count. Once we get those servers, Windows or Linux servers, we need to copy the setup files onto them. We need to deploy the setup files by installing and taking some steps. It contains manual and automatic installation, with CyberArk providing some PowerShell scripts themselves. With those scripts, we can do the installation automatically.
By comparison, with BeyondTrust, whatever the module is, the virtual appliance is built by the BeyondTrust team itself with all the configurations. We just need to deploy it in our organization network and do the initial networking configuration, and later, we can directly do the integrations.
Also, CyberArk recommends we do hardening for each component for security purposes. After hardening, unwanted firewalls and services will be disabled on the operating systems, which makes the product more secure.
Though there are some efforts required from the implementation engineer, the installation is straightforward. I rate the initial setup a seven out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
Users will clearly understand the solution once they go through the architecture diagram.
To connect to the target systems and view the accounts, view the session recordings, and check if the system health of all the components is working well. Any admin-related task will be done in the web portal, Password Vault Web Access, a separate component in CyberArk.
CyberArk is one of the better solutions which users will want to implement in their organization for securing their privileged accounts and access, and session monitoring for auditing. If they can deploy CyberArk, it's a good product.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Implementor
Cybersecurity Architecture Manager at Data Warden
An excellent product with immediate ROI and good password security
Pros and Cons
- "The password rotation and cyber gateway have been quite useful."
- "The license is expensive."
What is our primary use case?
The most common use case is when you need to hide the management for the servers, switches, routers, et cetera. You can use privileged access for remote use cases.
How has it helped my organization?
In my company, we have a lot of servers, and the problem is when the users want to access these platforms. You can access all the architecture and knowledge with this product. It provides more access and visibility.
What is most valuable?
The password rotation and cyber gateway have been quite useful. It's a solution that allows you to search for passwords for your servers and accounts. This is the most feature power.
The solution is quite stable.
It is scalable on the cloud.
What needs improvement?
The implementation is hard. For example, the on-prem implementation specifically is really hard to deploy.
The solution does not scale well on-premises.
This is an expensive product.
It's hard to get help from support if you are not certified.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is really stable. You just need to deploy a higher viability solution. However, you need to do a lot of budgeting to deploy that higher viability solution. You need at least 12 servers. It's really, really difficult to have a budget for that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is easy to scale on the cloud. It is difficult to expand it on-premises.
We have 30 people using the solution in my company.
At this point, we do not have plans to increase usage.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is really excellent. However, if you don't have a certification, it is impossible for you to receive technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used BeyondTrust and Centrify, among other solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty difficult and it takes a while to put into place.
You need at least six servers to deploy it and it's really difficult to have a budget for that - plus, the implementation itself is really hard. You likely have to dedicate one week to deploy the solution and another week or two to onboard all the accounts.
Basically, it's pretty complex to implement.
What about the implementation team?
We've used a consultant to assist us with the implementation.
What was our ROI?
The ROI is really quick. If you have a compromised account, it can compromise your infrastructure, and the loss of the business is really high. With this product and the protection it offers, you can witness ROI immediately.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
You need a large number of servers, and therefore it gets expensive to deploy the product.
The license is expensive. It costs us around $200 per user.
What other advice do I have?
We are using a privileged cloud and an on-prem cloud, an on-prem APD. We have a hybrid setup.
I'd advise potential new users to have very good scripting at the outset. If you don't, you'll have difficulties in the long run.
While the solution is expensive, it's excellent. I would rate it ten out of ten. You definitely get what you pay for.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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Updated: October 2025
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Download our free CyberArk Privileged Access Manager Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
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