IT runs on privileged access, but the definition of “privilege” has changed. Identities with elevated access now span far beyond a handful of system administrators. Developers, platform engineers, SREs, third-party vendors, business users with access to sensitive SaaS data, machine identities, and even AI agents all require privileged access to set up, maintain, and run the infrastructure and services powering digital initiatives. Examples include accounts used to access domain controllers, databases, virtual machines (VMs) in cloud environments, admin consoles for cloud services, and web applications that host sensitive data.
The infrastructure landscape has evolved just as drastically. Critical workloads now run across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, Kubernetes clusters, CI/CD pipelines, and hundreds of SaaS applications. Each new environment introduces more identities, roles, and policies that can be misconfigured or exploited. Adding to the risk, 50% of organizations still manually manage credentials for short-lived cloud workloads.1 As organizations modernize and digitally transform with cloud-first strategies and AI investments, the attack surface continues to expand.
