INDUSTRY
EMPLOYEES
INFRASTRUCTURE
How a financial services enterprise eliminated thousands of secondary IDs and cut credential rotation from 365 days to 10 hours
When this Fortune 100 finserv enterprise evaluated StrongDM, they weren’t looking for another heavyweight PAM platform. They were looking for a way out of a legacy privileged access model that had grown too large, too fragmented, and too costly to support at scale.
Years of expansion created a sprawling environment: more than 2,500 Windows servers, 2,000 Linux servers, and nearly a dozen database platforms. They ran SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB, to DynamoDB, Snowflake, Databricks, and Teradata. They also utilized on-prem data centers and four major clouds.
But the biggest problem wasn’t the infrastructure. It was the identities.
Identity Management vs. Access Management
Over time, the organization fell into a pattern of managing identities rather than managing access. This pitfall resulted in thousands of secondary IDs with privileged access across the enterprise. Unsurprisingly, the environment had become fertile ground for security gaps.
Identity management wasn’t the only access issue. Legacy vault tooling had reached end-of-life. Manual credential rotation cycles of 90 to 365 days created long windows of exposure. Jump boxes were difficult to maintain and even harder to secure. And while the list of problems seemed to multiply, the budget did not.
From the start, the team was focused on finding a solution that delivered real outcomes without inflating costs or headcount.
“We were acutely focused on total cost of ownership. With limited budget and people, we needed to achieve our goals without exorbitant spend.”
Vice President, Identity & Access Management, Fortune 100 Financial Services Enterprise.
The team needed a solution that aligned with their operational reality: lean team, large surface area, and heterogeneous infrastructure. First, they established clear requirements focused on operational efficiency and cost control.
“We’ve had direct access to StrongDM’s product management leaders and executives, and solutions have turned around quickly. We’re working hand-in-hand with StrongDM—highly beneficial from a partnership standpoint.”
Vice President, Identity & Access Management, Fortune 100 Financial Services Enterprise
Why StrongDM: Simplicity, Seamless Integration, Superior Support
After evaluating multiple enterprise PAM solutions, StrongDM was selected for its architectural simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and ability to integrate seamlessly with the organization's existing HashiCorp Vault implementation.
From the beginning, StrongDM stood out for its lightweight footprint and its ability to work across on-prem and multi-cloud environments without requiring complex proxies or additional infrastructure.
“We’re rolling StrongDM out across more than 2,500 Windows servers. The people side is small, but the server footprint is huge—and StrongDM fits that scale.”
— Vice President, Identity & Access Management, Fortune 100 Financial Services Enterprise
Another key advantage was StrongDM’s seamless integration with the organization’s existing HashiCorp Vault. The platform offered a clean path to modernizing credential rotation without rewriting internal processes or building new tooling.
Just as importantly, the team needed a partner—not just a vendor.
With cost efficiency, fast implementation, and responsive support, StrongDM aligned tightly with the enterprise’s priorities.
From Pilot to Platform: An Enterprise Rollout in Three Phases
The organization adopted a methodical, phased implementation strategy to minimize risk and ensure smooth adoption across different teams and environments.
Platform Capabilities Delivering Real Business Value
Dramatic Reduction in Privileged Accounts
The implementation enabled a fundamental transformation in the organization's privileged access model. Previously, each of the 24 Windows administrators maintained multiple secondary IDs, creating thousands of privileged accounts across the environment.
Automated Credential Rotation
Integration with HashiCorp Vault enabled automatic credential rotation every 10 hours, representing a dramatic improvement from the previous 90-day to 365-day rotation cycles. This enhancement significantly reduces the window of exposure for compromised credentials.
Infrastructure Consolidation
The agentless architecture eliminated the need for traditional jump boxes, reducing infrastructure complexity and maintenance overhead. This consolidation will enable the organization to reduce their overall infrastructure footprint over time.
Simplified User Experience
Despite initial concerns about change management, user adoption proceeded smoothly due to the intuitive interface design.
Summary
This Fortune 100 enterprise shows how large organizations can modernize privileged access management while materially improving both security and operations. By prioritizing architectural simplicity, cost efficiency, and a true vendor partnership, the team replaced a sprawling, high-maintenance identity model with StrongDM’s cloud-native control plane.
As their environment continues to expand, authorization remains continuous, consistent, and universally governed. The outcome: transformational security improvements, fewer privileged identities to manage, and a leaner, more predictable operating model—proof that the right platform strengthens control while reducing cost and complexity.