Delinea has been named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management (PAM) for the eighth consecutive time.
This is our eighth time running in the Leaders Quadrant, and it comes at a moment when the identity landscape looks nothing like it did even two years ago. Enterprises are no longer just managing human and machine identities. They're managing a fast-growing population of AI agents that need access to systems, data and each other, often with no human in the loop at all. We believe this year's recognition reflects how seriously we've taken that shift.
Over the past twelve months, we added just-in-time runtime authorization for AI agents. In plain terms, the same granular, time-bound access controls we've long applied to human and machine identities now extend to autonomous agents operating inside enterprise environments. An agent gets exactly the access it needs, exactly when it needs it and that access goes away the moment the task is done. Decisions are made in real-time and governed by policy.
The centralized control, session monitoring and credential management features are particularly valuable, as they help enforce strong security policies while maintaining smooth operational workflows. Lead Engineer - IT Services
We think this is what will be required for authorization going forward. Access shouldn't be a standing grant that sits around waiting to be misused. It should be a decision made in the moment, based on context and revoked automatically once that moment passes. The Gartner evaluation noted our placement on the Ability to Execute axis, and we believe our shift toward dynamic, real-time authorization is a major reason why.
If you're evaluating PAM vendors right now, here's the practical takeaway: The market is being reshaped by AI agents faster than most security programs are ready for. Every agent your teams deploy is a new identity that needs governing, and static, standing access to critical infrastructure. This is exactly the kind of attack surface that gets exploited. We feel a Leader placement is just that. We see it as an independent signal from Gartner that a vendor's approach to this problem holds up in the market on both vision and execution.
Delinea Secret Server has consistently demonstrated its value as a comprehensive and scalable PAM solution. Director, IT Security and Risk Management - IT Services
For customers already on the Delinea Platform, we feel this validates the direction we've been building toward: authorization that happens at the moment of access and built on defendable policies, not before it and not as an afterthought. For prospects comparing options, it's a data point worth weighing alongside your own evaluation, not a substitute for it.
Just-in-time (JIT) PAM has emerged as a core capability to counter potential rogue agentic AI. Delinea has delivered enhanced cloud-native JIT capabilities along with protocol-level ephemeral credential injection for servers, databases and Kubernetes. In practice, this means credentials are issued at the protocol level for the exact moment they're needed and never persist as standing access.
That eliminates a huge chunk of the attack surface that traditional privileged credentials create, because there's no credential sitting around to be stolen, harvested or forgotten about.
This is the same philosophy extended across three populations at once: humans (workforce), machines (workload) and now AI agents. One authorization model, applied consistently, rather than three separate systems bolted together.
None of this matters if the platform isn't there when you need it. We guarantee a 99.995% monthly availability SLA across our global regions, including the US, EU, Canada, Southeast Asia, the UK, Australia, and the UAE. When you're enforcing access controls at scale, and especially when those controls are making real-time decisions for AI agents, the platform making those decisions has to be dependable. We treat that as table stakes, not a bonus feature.
We've heard directly from customers that what sets Delinea apart isn't just the technology; it's how straightforward the platform is to deploy, how much support is available when questions come up, how clearly we help teams understand where they sit on the maturity curve and what to tackle next. Mapping against 70 real-world use cases isn't a marketing exercise; it's a practical tool that helps security teams figure out what "good" looks like in their specific environment, rather than guessing.
Delinea is a trusted partner of ours. We have received first-class product support and service through the years. Our organization values this vendor relationship. IT Security & Risk Management Associate - Banking
Eight consecutive times as a Leader is a recognition we don't take lightly, and it's also not the finish line. The identity landscape keeps moving. AI agents are only going to multiply, attackers are already using AI to move faster and the organizations that get ahead of this will be the ones treating authorization as something dynamic and continuous rather than something you configure once and forget.
We plan to keep building in that direction by extending runtime authorization further, tightening the connection between identity context and access decisions and making sure that whatever population of identities shows up next in your environment, AI agent, human or machine, gets governed with the same rigor.
Get complimentary access to the full 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management and learn more about Delinea's recognition as a Leader.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management, Paul Mezzera, Shubham Gera, Tarun Rohilla, Scott Brinegar, 21 October 2026
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