What KuppingerCole Reveals About the Convergence of Secrets Management and NHIM Security

Summary

Two recent KuppingerCole Leadership Compass reports point to a significant shift in identity security: the convergence of secrets management and non-human identity management. Akeyless’s leadership positions across both categories reflect the growing need for organizations to secure machine identities, secrets, certificates, encryption keys, and privileged access through a unified platform.

Akeyless Earns Leadership Recognition Across Two Critical Security Categories

Identity security is undergoing a fundamental change. As machine identities proliferate across cloud environments, software pipelines, and AI-driven systems, the traditional boundaries between secrets management and non-human identity management are beginning to disappear.

Two recent KuppingerCole Leadership Compass reports reflect this evolution. Together, they suggest that organizations increasingly need a unified approach to managing identities and the credentials that enable them.

In the KuppingerCole Leadership Compass for Enterprise Secrets Management, Akeyless was named the Overall Leader as well as a Product Leader, Innovation Leader, and Market Leader. More recently, in the Leadership Compass for Non-Human Identity Management, Akeyless was recognized as both a Product Leader and an Innovation Leader.

These awards reinforce Akeyless’s vision that secrets management and non-human identity security are no longer separate challenges. Organizations need a unified approach to securing machine identities, secrets, certificates, encryption keys, and privileged access across increasingly automated environments.

KuppingerCole describes Akeyless as delivering a “comprehensive and unified Secrets and Machine Identity Platform” that addresses “the critical needs for managing secrets and machine identities.”

The combined findings suggest that organizations increasingly need a unified approach to managing identities and the credentials that enable them.

As AI, cloud-native architectures, and automation continue to accelerate, organizations are increasingly treating secrets management and non-human identity security as interconnected disciplines rather than separate initiatives.

The Rise of Non-Human Identities

Identity is no longer primarily a human problem.

Today, applications, services, containers, APIs, CI/CD pipelines, cloud workloads, AI agents, and autonomous systems perform the majority of authentication and access requests inside enterprise environments. Industry estimates suggest that non-human identities outnumber human identities by more than 100 to 1, and the gap continues to widen.

This growth creates new challenges. Unlike human users, non-human identities are often ephemeral, highly distributed, and created dynamically. They require access to secrets, certificates, encryption keys, tokens, and privileged credentials that must be continuously governed and protected.

Traditional identity systems were designed to manage people. Secrets management tools were designed to store credentials. Modern organizations now require a platform that can govern the complete lifecycle of machine identities and the credentials they depend on.

This is precisely the challenge that Akeyless was built to address.

Why Secrets Management and NHIM Are Converging

For years, organizations treated secrets management and identity management as separate disciplines. One team managed passwords, API keys, and certificates. Another team managed users and access controls.

In reality, every non-human identity relies on secrets, certificates, tokens, or cryptographic keys to authenticate and operate. As machine identities proliferate, these disciplines increasingly overlap.

KuppingerCole’s recognition across both categories highlights an important market shift:

Modern identity security requires organizations to manage not only who or what has access, but also the credentials, certificates, and cryptographic assets that enable that access.

Increasingly, organizations must also control how those identities access runtime resources, making identity, secrets, and runtime access part of the same security conversation.

This convergence is becoming even more important as organizations deploy AI-driven systems that operate autonomously and interact directly with sensitive infrastructure and data.

What KuppingerCole Evaluated

Across both Leadership Compass reports, KuppingerCole examined how effectively vendors help organizations secure and govern modern digital identities and access.

The reports evaluated capabilities such as:

• Lifecycle management
• Credential rotation and automation
• Policy enforcement
• Auditability and compliance
• Cloud and Kubernetes integrations
• DevOps and CI/CD support
• Scalability across hybrid and multi-cloud environments
• Innovation and future readiness
• Architectural differentiation

The evaluation focuses not only on feature breadth, but also on how well platforms solve real-world enterprise challenges at scale.

What KuppingerCole’s Evaluations Reveal About Modern Identity Security

1. A Unified Platform for Secrets and Non-Human Identities

One of the strongest themes across both reports is Akeyless’s unified platform approach.

Rather than deploying separate tools for secrets management, machine identity security, certificate management, encryption, and privileged access, organizations can manage these capabilities through a single control plane.

This enables consistent governance across:

• Secrets
• Certificates
• Encryption keys
• Service accounts
• Machine identities
• Application and workload identities
• Cloud workloads

The result is reduced complexity, stronger governance, and lower operational overhead.

2. Built for Cloud-Native and Automated Environments

Modern applications are built around containers, Kubernetes, APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and ephemeral workloads.

The NHIM report highlights Akeyless’s extensive support for DevOps and automation workflows, while the Secrets Management report recognizes the platform’s strong integration ecosystem and cloud-native architecture.

Akeyless enables organizations to:

• Eliminate hardcoded credentials
• Deliver secrets dynamically
• Automate credential rotation
• Secure CI/CD pipelines
• Protect cloud-native workloads

This allows security teams to keep pace with development velocity without sacrificing control.

3. Strong Governance and Compliance Capabilities

Visibility and governance become increasingly difficult as machine identities multiply.

KuppingerCole highlighted Akeyless’s capabilities around lifecycle reporting, delegated administration, identity ownership mapping, auditing, and policy enforcement.

Organizations gain the ability to:

• Identify who owns machine identities
• Track credential usage
• Enforce least-privilege access
• Demonstrate compliance
• Detect policy violations

This level of governance is becoming essential as regulators and auditors increasingly scrutinize machine identity security.

4. Zero-Knowledge Security Through Distributed Fragments Cryptography™

KuppingerCole specifically noted Akeyless’s proprietary Distributed Fragments Cryptography™ (DFC™) as a key differentiator.

Unlike traditional vault architectures that rely on centralized encryption keys, Akeyless’s patented DFC™ technology enables a Zero-Knowledge model in which secrets and keys are never fully exposed or centrally stored.

KuppingerCole highlights Akeyless’s “unique Distributed Fragments Cryptography” and notes its architectural approach “enhance both security and performance through Zero Knowledge principles.”

This architecture provides several advantages:

• Elimination of master-key risk
• Stronger protection against compromise
• Customer control of key fragments
• Secure SaaS delivery without sacrificing security

As organizations seek alternatives to traditional vault architectures, this differentiation continues to resonate strongly in the market.

5. Prepared for AI and Autonomous Systems

One of the most important signals in the NHIM report is the growing importance of AI-driven systems.

AI agents, autonomous workflows, and machine-to-machine interactions are rapidly becoming first-class participants in enterprise environments.

These systems require:

• Dynamic access
• Policy-driven authorization
• Short-lived credentials
• Continuous governance

Akeyless was designed around these principles.

Rather than treating AI workloads as exceptions, Akeyless enables organizations to manage them using the same lifecycle, governance, and security controls applied to other non-human identities. This positions customers to adopt AI securely while maintaining operational control.

What These Reports Tell Us About the Future

The combined findings from both Leadership Compass reports point to a clear direction for the industry.

Organizations are moving away from:

• Static credentials
• Long-lived secrets
• Siloed identity tools
• Manual access management

They are moving toward:

• Dynamic identities
• Ephemeral credentials
• Policy-driven access
• Unified governance
• Automated lifecycle management

The relationship between secrets management and non-human identity management will become increasingly important as organizations seek platforms that can govern the complete identity ecosystem. The winners will be platforms that provide security, automation, governance, and scalability within a single architecture.

Why This Matters for Compliance and Operational Resilience

European organizations are navigating a unique combination of challenges: increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, accelerated cloud adoption, expanding software supply chains, and the rapid growth of machine identities driven by automation and AI.

At the same time, frameworks such as DORA, NIS2, GDPR, and sector-specific compliance mandates are raising expectations around governance, accountability, and operational resilience. Organizations need visibility into who, and increasingly what, has access to critical systems, data, and infrastructure.

The findings from both KuppingerCole Leadership Compass reports point to a common conclusion: managing secrets, machine identities, certificates, and privileged access as separate initiatives creates operational complexity and governance gaps. A unified approach enables organizations to reduce risk, strengthen compliance, and support innovation without sacrificing security.

For organizations operating across hybrid, multi-cloud, and highly regulated environments, the ability to govern both secrets and non-human identities through a single platform is becoming a strategic requirement rather than a technical preference.

Akeyless’s recognition across both reports reflects this broader market evolution and the growing demand for platforms that can secure modern digital infrastructure at scale.

Ready to Modernize Secrets and Machine Identity Security?

Discover why KuppingerCole recognized Akeyless as a leader in both Enterprise Secrets Management and Non-Human Identity Management.

Request a personalized demo to see how Akeyless unifies secrets management, machine identity security, certificate lifecycle management, encryption, and runtime access governance through a single platform.

Frequently Asked Questions