Open-Source Privileged Access Management: A Reference Architecture for Constrained Administrative Delegation in Small and Mid-Size Enterprise Environments

Many small and mid-size enterprises know that they need tighter control over privileged access but cannot justify the cost, staffing, or rollout complexity of a commercial Privileged Access Management (PAM) platform.

This paper documents a reference deployment that used open-source components and existing virtualization infrastructure to broker administrative sessions, enforce constrained delegation through Just Enough Administration (JEA), route approvals through an existing messaging workflow, and record privileged activity for audit. The design is intended for roughly 50-500 user environments that already run Active Directory and can support basic PowerShell, Linux, and virtualization administration.

In the reference deployment described here, implementation required approximately 20 architect-hours across build, configuration, and tuning, and ongoing maintenance averaged 2-4 administrator-hours per month. These figures reflect one production deployment and should be treated as illustrative rather than universal.