A globally recognized automotive leader operating a complex, multi-cloud infrastructure recently undertook a comprehensive overhaul of its security posture, moving decisively away from its long-standing Privileged Access Management solution. The incumbent system, once a cornerstone of its security, had become a significant operational bottleneck and a critical vulnerability, fundamentally misaligned with the company’s vision for a modern, resilient enterprise. This strategic pivot was not merely about upgrading a tool but about embracing a completely new philosophy centered on achieving Zero Standing Privilege and implementing a Continuous Identity model. The initiative aimed to replace slow, error-prone manual processes with an intelligent, automated framework capable of making real-time, context-aware access decisions across its vast digital landscape, setting a new standard for security in a high-stakes industry.
The Pitfalls of Legacy Security
An Outdated System in a Modern World
The core of the problem lay in the legacy system’s inability to keep pace with the dynamic nature of a cloud-first enterprise that spans Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Every request for elevated permissions triggered a cumbersome, manual workflow that acted as a significant drag on productivity and agility. An engineer needing access had to submit a formal request, which then sat in a queue awaiting validation from a human approver. This manual verification was a painstaking process where the approver had to navigate to separate systems, such as ServiceNow, to confirm the existence and validity of a corresponding change request ticket. This sequence of manual checks and approvals could stretch from several minutes to, in many cases, multiple hours, directly impeding the ability of technical teams to respond to urgent incidents or deploy critical updates swiftly. This inherent latency created a culture of workarounds and frustration, while the operational overhead of managing these manual approval chains placed a continuous strain on the security and IT teams, diverting their attention from more strategic initiatives.
Beyond the operational friction, the legacy PAM solution posed a direct and substantial security risk due to its architectural limitations. The system operated on a model of standing privileges, where users were granted persistent access rights that created a vast and static attack surface for potential adversaries. Furthermore, it offered zero visibility into the real-time context surrounding an access request, a fundamental requirement for any modern Zero Trust security framework. It was incapable of performing real-time checks on a user’s security posture, such as verifying the health of their device through an endpoint security tool before granting elevated permissions. An approver had no automated way to confirm that the user’s device was compliant or that their risk score was low. This lack of dynamic, contextual validation meant that access decisions were made with incomplete information, leaving the organization vulnerable. The potential for human error in the manual verification process further compounded this risk, as a simple oversight could lead to an unauthorized user gaining access to critical infrastructure.
The Shift Towards a Context-Aware Future
Recognizing the urgent need to mitigate these risks, the automotive giant’s security team embarked on a search for a truly modern privileged access solution. Their initial evaluation included several alternative PAM vendors, but they quickly encountered a recurring theme: most traditional tools, despite having more modern user interfaces, were still built on architectural foundations designed for legacy, on-premises environments. These solutions were not natively suited for the dynamic, API-driven world of a multi-cloud enterprise. The critical missing component was a genuine identity data fabric—an intelligent integration layer capable of ingesting, correlating, and analyzing a rich variety of signals from disparate business and security systems in real time. The company required a solution that could seamlessly connect to its entire technology stack, using Microsoft Entra ID as its central Single Sign-On provider, and leverage this integrated data to make automated, intelligent access decisions across its cloud footprint. Traditional offerings simply could not provide this level of deep, real-time integration and context.
The evaluation process ultimately led the company to a vendor whose approach was fundamentally different, built around the core concept of an Identity Data Fabric. This technology represented a paradigm shift, moving beyond the limitations of isolated security silos. The platform was designed to connect to and ingest context from the company’s entire digital ecosystem, enabling it to make authorization decisions based on a holistic, real-time understanding of each access request. This transformed the fundamental security question from a static, permission-based inquiry—”Does this user have the permission to access this resource?”—to a dynamic, context-based one: “Should this user be granted access to this resource right now, based on everything we currently know?” This new model allowed the company to harness business context, such as an open and assigned ServiceNow ticket; security posture data, like a low-risk score from CrowdStrike; identity information from Entra ID; and governance data from a platform like SailPoint, making each signal a critical factor in the real-time authorization process.
Proving Value and Realizing a New Security Paradigm
A Successful Proof of Value
To validate these advanced capabilities, the company engaged in a rigorous, three-week proof of value (POV) designed to test the solution against its most critical requirements. A primary objective was to confirm the platform’s ability to integrate seamlessly with the organization’s diverse identity and security ecosystem. During this period, the solution successfully demonstrated its powerful integration capabilities, connecting with key systems including Entra ID for identity, CrowdStrike for endpoint security, and a range of business applications like Salesforce, JIRA, and ServiceNow. It also integrated with the existing governance platform, SailPoint, proving the flexibility and comprehensive reach of its Identity Data Fabric. This successful demonstration assured the security team that the platform could function not as another isolated tool but as a central orchestration engine, capable of unifying disparate data sources into a cohesive and intelligent security framework that reflected the reality of their complex IT environment.
The POV also focused on demonstrating the practical application of this integrated data through the enforcement of sophisticated, human-readable policies. A key use case involved an engineer requiring privileged access to cloud infrastructure. The policy stipulated that access would be granted only if the engineer had an active, assigned change request ticket in ServiceNow and their device was simultaneously deemed compliant with a low-risk score from CrowdStrike. The system successfully orchestrated this just-in-time access, granting temporary, session-bound privileges to infrastructure in AWS and Azure that expired automatically, effectively eliminating the need for standing privileges. Furthermore, the platform delivered clear, immediate visibility into every access decision through real-time notifications sent to security teams via Slack. This created a robust and instantaneous audit trail that had been completely absent in the legacy system, providing an unprecedented level of transparency and control. At the conclusion of the three weeks, the POV was deemed a complete success.
Immediate Transformation and a Strategic Vision
The impact of implementing the new solution was immediate and transformative, delivering measurable improvements across security and operations. The time required to grant privileged access plummeted from a lengthy process of minutes or hours to mere seconds, as automated policies instantly verified the necessary context without any human intervention. This acceleration directly boosted the productivity of engineering and operations teams. The complete elimination of manual approval workflows not only removed a significant source of operational friction but also drastically reduced the risk of human error. The business case for the investment was heavily supported by the projected cost savings from retiring these manual processes in both the PAM and Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) workflows. Moreover, security teams gained unprecedented, real-time insight into all access events through integrated Slack notifications, which substantially improved their monitoring, auditing, and incident response capabilities, shifting them from a reactive to a proactive posture.
Ultimately, the automotive leader viewed this implementation as far more than a simple replacement for an outdated PAM tool. The initial project, focused on securing privileged access to cloud infrastructure, established the foundation for a much broader, enterprise-wide Continuous Identity architecture. This strategic initiative successfully created an adaptive security posture where access decisions and permissions could dynamically change in real time, mirroring the rapid evolution of both business needs and the complex threat landscape. This case study served as a powerful illustration of a wider industry trend, where leading enterprises are now leveraging identity data fabrics to not only automate and strengthen security but also to accelerate business operations in the cloud era. The company successfully transitioned from a static, vulnerable model to a dynamic, intelligent, and resilient security framework prepared for the challenges of today and tomorrow.
