What Is Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)? Why It Matters in 2025

As organizations move more workloads to the cloud, managing who has access to what becomes exponentially more complex.
And more dangerous.

Thousands of permissions, dozens of cloud services, and hundreds of users — all operating under a loosely controlled web of IAM (identity and access management) policies.

This is where Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) steps in.

In this article, we’ll explain what CIEM is, why it’s essential, and which platforms are leading the charge in 2025.

The Problem: Excessive Cloud Permissions

Cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud offer fine-grained access controls via IAM.
But here’s the catch:

• Most organizations overprovision permissions to avoid friction

• These permissions are rarely reviewed or revoked

• Attackers increasingly exploit misconfigured entitlements

• Native IAM tools are difficult to manage at scale

Least privilege is a security principle — but without automation, it’s almost impossible to enforce.

What Is CIEM?

CIEM (Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management) is a specialized security solution that provides visibility and control over cloud identities, roles, and permissions.

CIEM platforms help you:

• Discover all identities and their entitlements across clouds

• Detect overprivileged or unused permissions

• Enforce least privilege automatically

• Monitor permission drift over time

• Apply access policies uniformly across cloud providers

Think of CIEM as the missing layer between IAM and Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM).

Why CIEM Is Essential in 2025

• 80% of cloud breaches involve compromised credentials or misconfigured permissions

• Multi-cloud environments are harder to monitor manually

• Zero Trust requires identity-level controls

• Compliance frameworks (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2) require access audits

CIEM enables security teams to shift from reactive to proactive entitlement management.

Top CIEM Platforms to Consider

1. Microsoft Entra Permissions Management

Formerly CloudKnox (acquired by Microsoft), this CIEM solution provides native integration with Microsoft Entra ID and multi-cloud support.

• Best for: Enterprises using Azure + multi-cloud

• Key features:

  • Real-time visibility into permissions across clouds

  • Risk-based analysis of identity activity

  • Automated remediation (least privilege policies)

  • Audit-ready reports

  • Supports Azure, AWS, GCP

Ideal for: Businesses already in the Microsoft ecosystem.

2. Sonrai Dig

Sonrai Dig offers CIEM and cloud identity graphing to help visualize trust relationships and permission paths.

• Best for: Security-first organizations needing advanced identity mapping

• Key features:

  • Cloud identity graph engine

  • Least privilege scoring

  • Role drift detection

  • Integration with SIEM/SOAR platforms

  • Continuous risk assessment

Great for: Complex, multi-cloud environments with strict governance needs.

3. Ermetic

Ermetic is a cloud-native CIEM solution with powerful automation and analytics for identity governance.

• Best for: DevSecOps and cloud compliance teams

• Key features:

  • Permissions usage analytics

  • Auto-remediation of risky access

  • Just-in-time access workflows

  • Compliance mapping (e.g., NIST, GDPR)

  • Agentless deployment

Recommended for: Enterprises scaling rapidly on AWS, Azure, or GCP.

4. Saviynt Cloud Privilege Manager

Saviynt expands beyond traditional identity governance into CIEM with its Cloud Privilege Manager.

• Best for: Organizations combining identity governance and entitlement control

• Key features:

  • Temporary elevated access

  • Access certification workflows

  • Policy enforcement and alerting

  • Privileged access management for cloud IaaS

  • Governance for human and non-human identities

Top pick for: Enterprises unifying IGA, CIEM, and PAM strategies.

5. Permiso

Permiso is a newcomer focused on real-time visibility and response to identity-related cloud threats.

• Best for: Security operations and threat detection teams

• Key features:

  • Behavior-based identity analytics

  • High-risk activity alerts

  • Identity threat detection rules

  • Session analysis and tracing

  • Lightweight, agentless setup

Perfect for: Teams focused on identity-based threat hunting.