Delinea has announced it will acquire StrongDM in a move aimed at redefining identity security for enterprises operating in continuous, cloud-native and AI-driven environments.
Under the definitive agreement, Delinea will combine its privileged access management (PAM) capabilities with StrongDM’s just-in-time (JIT) runtime authorisation technology to create a unified identity security platform covering administrators, developers, non-human identities and AI agents. The transaction was announced on 16 January 2026 and is expected to close in the first quarter of the year, subject to regulatory approvals.
The acquisition reflects a shift away from traditional, session-based PAM toward continuous, real-time authorisation models designed for always-on environments. As AI adoption accelerates and machine identities increasingly outnumber human users, security leaders face growing pressure to govern privileged access dynamically across hybrid, multi-cloud and on-premises infrastructure.
StrongDM’s JIT runtime authorisation will be integrated into the Delinea Platform, powered by Iris AI, providing a single policy, governance and audit layer that enforces least privilege at the moment of action. Delinea said this approach supports both ephemeral and credential-based access while enabling organisations to progressively move toward a zero standing privilege model without requiring a rip-and-replace of existing PAM investments.
For CISOs, the combined platform is positioned to reduce exposure to credential theft, phishing and software supply chain attacks by minimising persistent credentials. It also extends identity governance to AI agents and other non-human identities, enabling real-time visibility, policy enforcement and auditability for privileged actions taken by autonomous systems.
Stephen Davis, CISO at Hubbell Incorporated, said the combined Delinea and StrongDM capabilities offer a unified way to authorise and govern privileged access for IT teams, developers and AI agents across cloud and on-prem environments, supporting AI adoption without sacrificing security or compliance.
The integration is designed to support modern engineering and DevOps workflows by providing frictionless access to sensitive resources such as cloud infrastructure, production databases and containers, while continuously enforcing least privilege. Delinea said this balances developer productivity with the compliance and control requirements of security and risk teams.
Art Gilliland, CEO of Delinea, said identity remains the core control layer for modern security, with stolen or compromised credentials continuing to drive breaches. He said the acquisition accelerates Delinea’s transition toward ephemeral access models suited to cloud and AI-centric environments, extending the same level of rigour applied to human access to non-human and agentic identities.
StrongDM CEO Tim Prendergast said access models built for static infrastructure and human users are no longer sufficient. He said joining Delinea enables runtime authorisation at enterprise scale, enforcing policy invisibly while securing every privileged action across modern environments.
The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed.
