Thycotic has been named a leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management (PAM) based on its ability to execute and completeness of vision.
According to Simon Azzopardi, senior vice president for EMEA and APAC at Thycotic, the 100% channel-focused security software specialist was ranked in the first PAM Magic Quadrant in 2018 — and has significantly improved its position.
“Thycotic, instead of trying to compete by copying, worked to provide all the essentials and more and then innovate in the space,” says Azzopardi.
The ranking validates its strategy of providing cloud-ready, easy to use offerings across the complete privileged access attack surface.
Thycotic works hard to keep the customer front and centre, prioritising timely technical and marketing support as well as user-friendly UIs, installations and configurations.
Key innovations include Thycotic’s Account Lifecycle Manager and its new high-speed DevOps Secrets Vault for password management.
“By innovation and listening to what’s really keeping our customers up at night, and how we can focus on least privilege and then releasing that down to the customer side, we have released multiple new solutions over the last six to eight months that have enabled us to be innovation leaders in the space,” says Azzopardi.
Azzopardi explains that Account Lifecycle Manager introduces a governance process around all privileged accounts, including service accounts, that delivers across the full lifecycle of these accounts. Not only can companies control privileges for the accounts they had in the first place, but also the creation of new ones.
The DevOps Secrets Vault allows people to introduce security not only at an account level but at a machine level, at the high velocities of a typical devops environment.
“And that means they are able to handle, as it were, secrets being created, exchanged and terminated very fast,” says Azzopardi. “It takes too long for a traditional vault to create the secret, rotate it, make it secure, then put it back into the vault.”
The PAM market is growing strongly, with Gartner forecasting that half of the expected market (typically firms turning over around $100m a year) will invest in just-in-time PAM by 2024.
Again according to Gartner, firms who do implement this model tend to experience 80% fewer breaches than other firms – because it is just one of the easiest ways to reduce the attack surface, and therefore the chance of attack.
Anna Michniewska, senior marketing director for international business at Thycotic, adds that Thycotic’s channel focus means that it continues to devote resources, almost agency-style, to assist its partners.
Partners can request campaigns via its partner marketing hub, while Thycotic creates campaign flows specifically for partners as well as recommending approaches based on its own experiences.
“It’s not only words, we actually do practically help them — growing the base, generating leads and nurturing opportunities,” Michniewska said.
That includes help with the ‘new normal’ of digital and social selling.
“We’ve created webinars, we’ve shared our experiences, and and so on,” she says. “Digital and social selling is a novelty, and I think our partners agree, so we’ve focusing on Google campaigns with good quality content and webinars and more.”