SSH Blog | Defensive Cybersecurity

How a Global Investment Manager Modernized its PAM globally  | SSH

Written by Barbara Hoffman | Apr 7, 2026 9:15:35 AM

In investment and financial services, security can’t slow the business down. For a European investment manager operating globally in highly regulated environments, privileged access needed to be secure, auditable, and compliant—while still fitting a cloud-first operating model. In this highly competitive industry, it also needed to operate at the speed of business.

 

Legacy PAM providers failed to provide the lightweight speed and agility they needed to stay competitive and start-up providers lacked the comprehensive PAM capabilities required to stay compliant. They came to SSH and found the tools and partnership to overcome their challenges. Here’s their story.

The Challenges: Global Regulations, Scale and Cloud Speed

The organization operates across multiple geographic regions, each with strict regulatory oversight from authorities such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. Auditability and traceability were non-negotiable. As a modern, cloud based, ephemeral infrastructure operating in a highly competitive market – neither was speed and agility.

Legacy, agent-heavy PAM platforms designed around static servers and long rollout cycles simply didn’t fit, nor did some newer start-ups whose portfolios did not offer the robust capabilities they required. The team needed a solution that:

  • Provides robust PAM capabilities
  • Works consistently across regions, and related regulatory frameworks
  • Supports passwordless, ephemeral access,
  • Secures both cloud and data center environments,
  • Can be deployed quickly—without years-long projects.

Evaluating the Options: Why One Modern PAM Stood Out

They thoroughly evaluated several PAM solutions that included a broad range of options. While some tools addressed parts of their requirements, one solution differentiated itself quickly. 

It wasn’t just about meeting requirements—it was about avoiding future complexity.

The key deciding factors were clear:

  • Speed and agility of deployment
  • Simplicity via an intuitive interface
  • Breadth of access control and capabilities
  • Agentless architecture providing seamless management and control

Their chosen PAM solution didn’t just meet the requirements. It pre-emptively solved problems they didn’t want to create (or even knew they would have) in the first place.

From PoC to Production—In Months, Not Years

The rollout followed a structured but efficient path: a proof of concept, a non-production deployment focused on automation, and then production. Because automation was built-in early, the rollout was accomplished quickly.

What competing platforms often struggle to deliver in years was achieved in months.

Scaling Secure Access Without Friction

The initial deployment covered around 2,000 endpoints and 100 privileged users, using role-based access control, session recording, and passwordless authentication. Adoption quickly expanded, with usage more than doubling as other teams onboarded.

The platform’s credential-less design fit naturally with the customer’s ephemeral infrastructure—no long-lived credentials to manage, no agents to maintain, and no added complexity.

Built for What Comes Next

Beyond human access, this forward looking global leader is now extending traditional privileged access management into automation and DevOps workflows, integrating with tools like Ansible, now. The platform’s cloud-native, microservices-based architecture—designed to run in Kubernetes—supports auto-scaling, future use cases, and emerging technologies such as agentic AI.

The customer achieved strong compliance across regions, secure passwordless access, and rapid deployment aligned with cloud operations and business objectives—all without introducing unnecessary complexity.

For a modern investment manager, privileged access is no longer a bottleneck. It’s an enabler.

The Result: Privileged Access Management Without Compromise with PrivX

By choosing PrivX PAM, the Customer achieved:

  • Strong compliance and auditability across regions
  • Secure, passwordless privileged access
  • Rapid deployment aligned with modern cloud operations
  • A PAM solution that grows with the business, can respond to usage spikes and does not introduce complexity into the Customer’s modern environment
  • Future-proof solution for secure access management

 

Learn more about the winning solution, PrivX Just-in-Time (JIT) privileged access management that keeps organizations secure and people productive here.