Singapore – Delinea has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire StrongDM, a provider of access management technology designed for modern engineering, DevOps and AI–enabled operations.
The transaction brings together Delinea’s expertise in privileged access management (PAM) with StrongDM’s just-in-time (JIT) runtime authorisation approach, creating a unified identity security platform intended to support human users, non-human identities and autonomous AI agents across complex enterprise environments.
As organisations accelerate the use of AI and automation, machine-based identities increasingly exceed the number of human users, heightening the need for real-time control over privileged access. By integrating StrongDM’s runtime authorisation capabilities into the Delinea platform, supported by Iris AI, the combined offering will provide a single layer for policy management, governance and auditing.
This architecture is designed to enforce least-privilege access at the point of execution, while accommodating both short-lived and credential-based access methods and enabling a gradual shift towards zero standing privilege without disrupting existing systems.
“Stolen or lost credentials remain the number one cause of breaches, which makes identity the core control layer for modern security,” Art Gilliland, CEO at Delinea, stated.
“This acquisition will accelerate our evolution toward modern, ephemeral access models typical of cloud and AI-centric environments, empowering organisations to secure NHIs with the same rigour applied to human access.”
The combined technology reflects a broader transition from traditional, session-oriented privileged access tools to a continuously operating security control plane. This model allows ongoing assessment and enforcement of access rights across cloud-native, hybrid and on-premise environments, supporting the operational needs of developers and automated systems while maintaining oversight and regulatory alignment.
Following completion of the acquisition, the integrated platform is expected to improve secure access to critical infrastructure, reduce reliance on persistent credentials that are commonly targeted in cyber incidents, and strengthen governance of automated and AI-driven activities through unified visibility and audit trails.
Centralising authorisation and monitoring is also intended to simplify security operations and compliance across diverse IT and SaaS landscapes.
“Access models designed for static infrastructure and human users simply don’t work in continuous cloud and AI-driven environments,” Tim Prendergast, CEO at StrongDM, commented.
“By joining Delinea, we will deliver runtime authorisation at enterprise scale, securing every privileged action through policy-based enforcement that stays invisible to developers and operators. This is identity security built for how modern enterprises actually run.”
The acquisition remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is anticipated to be completed in the first quarter of 2026.
