CyberArk offers various types of vault environments to ensure the secure storage, management, and access of sensitive information such as credentials, passwords, and privileged accounts. Two of the key deployment models in CyberArk’s ecosystem are the Satellite Vault Environment and the Distributed Vault Environment. Both models are designed to meet specific organizational needs for scalability, availability, disaster recovery, and security.
This comparison will dive into the concepts of both environments, their use cases, and how they differ from each other.
Satellite Vault Environment
A Satellite Vault in CyberArk refers to a secondary vault used primarily to handle remote or branch offices, isolated environments, or specific departments that operate in semi-autonomous modes. These vaults are not considered core vaults but instead extend the coverage of the main CyberArk environment to handle decentralized operations while maintaining secure privileged access controls.
Key Features of a Satellite Vault:
1. Local Management of Credentials:
Satellite vaults are typically deployed in remote locations where users and systems have limited connectivity to the primary vault. They store and manage credentials for that specific remote region or office, ensuring that users can continue working without direct reliance on the central vault.
2. Synchronization with Central Vault:
Data between the satellite vault and the central vault is periodically synchronized to ensure that credentials and privileged accounts are consistent across all systems. This synchronization may occur based on scheduled intervals or in near real-time, depending on connectivity.
3. Isolated but Connected:
A satellite vault operates semi-independently. If the central vault becomes unavailable or if network disruptions occur, the satellite vault can continue operating without disruption. Once the central vault is back online, any changes are synchronized automatically.
4. Local Disaster Recovery:
Since satellite vaults are often deployed in remote or autonomous environments, they have local disaster recovery mechanisms. If connectivity to the central vault fails, users can still retrieve and rotate credentials locally within the satellite vault.
5. Localized Data Storage:
In satellite vault setups, sensitive information (like passwords and keys) is stored locally, which allows branch offices or departments to operate independently of the central infrastructure.
Advantages of Satellite Vault Environment:
• Reduces Latency: Users in remote offices can access the satellite vault without long wait times caused by connecting to a central vault located in another region.
• Increases Availability: If the primary vault is unreachable due to network failure, the satellite vault provides an alternative for local users.
• Enhances Scalability: Satellite vaults allow an organization to scale operations across different geographical locations without overwhelming the central vault.
• Data Sovereignty: For organizations with strict data governance policies, satellite vaults can help manage sensitive data locally, adhering to regional laws and regulations.
Distributed Vault Environment
A Distributed Vault Environment in CyberArk involves the deployment of multiple vaults across different geographical locations to enhance availability, scalability, and disaster recovery capabilities. In this setup, each vault can serve as a primary vault for a region or business unit, but all vaults are interconnected and synchronized, ensuring global coverage and fault tolerance.
Key Features of a Distributed Vault:
1. Global Redundancy:
Distributed vaults are deployed across multiple regions or data centers. If one vault becomes unavailable, users and systems can seamlessly switch to another vault, ensuring uninterrupted access.
2. Real-Time Replication:
Vaults in a distributed environment are continuously synchronized in near real-time, ensuring that credentials, privileged account policies, and access logs are up to date across all vaults.
3. Load Balancing:
Distributed vault environments can balance loads between multiple vaults, ensuring optimal performance by routing traffic to the vault with the least load or closest to the user’s location.
4. Disaster Recovery and Failover:
In case of a disaster at one location, a distributed vault environment provides automatic failover capabilities to other vaults. This ensures business continuity and reduces downtime for critical operations.
5. Full Integration:
Unlike satellite vaults, distributed vaults are part of the core infrastructure. They don’t operate in isolation but as a fully integrated system, ensuring that changes in one vault are propagated throughout the network.
Advantages of Distributed Vault Environment:
• High Availability: Distributed vaults ensure that privileged access is always available, even if one vault experiences a failure.
• Better Performance: By distributing vaults geographically, users and systems can connect to the nearest vault, reducing latency and improving the overall speed of operations.
• Scalability: Large organizations with global operations benefit from the ability to scale their vault deployments as needed without overwhelming a single vault.
• Centralized Management: Even though vaults are distributed, they can be managed from a central location, providing a unified view of the entire privileged access infrastructure.
Comparison: Satellite Vault vs. Distributed Vault Environment
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