Ekran System vs Alternatives: Which User Activity Monitoring Tool Wins?User activity monitoring (UAM) has become a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity, insider threat detection, and compliance programs. Organizations use UAM to record, analyze, and control user actions on endpoints and servers — capturing screens, keystrokes, file transfers, privileged sessions, and configuration changes. When choosing a UAM solution, teams evaluate visibility, detection accuracy, scalability, privacy controls, integrations, and total cost of ownership.
This article compares Ekran System — a commercial UAM and privileged access management (PAM) product — with common alternatives. It explains core capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, typical deployment scenarios, and decision factors to help you choose the right tool for your environment.
What to expect from a modern UAM solution
A mature UAM tool should provide:
- Comprehensive visibility: video/screen recordings, activity logs, command history, file transfer records, and application/process telemetry.
- Real-time alerting and policy enforcement for risky behaviors (privileged access misuse, data exfiltration, anomalous sessions).
- Forensic capabilities: searchable recordings and logs, session playback, timestamped evidence for audits and investigations.
- Integration with SIEM, IAM/PAM, ticketing, and SOAR platforms.
- Scalability: support for thousands of endpoints and hybrid environments (on-prem, cloud, VDI).
- Privacy and compliance features: masking, session redaction, role-based access controls, and data retention policies.
- Easy deployment and management: agents, appliance or cloud models, centralized policy administration, and reporting.
Overview: Ekran System — core capabilities
Ekran System is an enterprise UAM and PAM-focused platform designed to monitor, record, and control user actions across endpoints, servers, remote sessions, and privileged accounts. Key features include:
- Screen and session recording with time-synchronized logs and keystroke capture.
- Real-time alerts based on customizable rules (command patterns, data transfers, system changes).
- Session blocking, remote termination, and man-in-the-middle controls for live interventions.
- Integration with directory services (LDAP/AD), SIEMs, and ticketing systems.
- Role-based access control, session redaction, and compliance reporting.
- On-premises, virtual appliance, and cloud deployment options.
- Forensic search and granular playback with keystroke overlays and file transfer context.
Common alternatives to Ekran System
Alternatives vary by focus: pure UAM vendors, PAM suites with session monitoring, and broader endpoint detection platforms. Notable alternatives include:
- ObserveIT (now part of Proofpoint) — UAM with strong behavioral analytics and recording.
- Teramind — UAM with behavioral risk scoring, DLP features, and automation.
- BeyondTrust (formerly Bomgar/RSA) — PAM with session recording and privileged access controls.
- CyberArk Privileged Session Manager — PAM-focused session monitoring for privileged accounts.
- Forcepoint Insider Threat / Digital Guardian — broader data protection suites with user activity components.
- Splunk/Uptycs + custom capture — combining EDR/telemetry with custom session capture or third-party connectors.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Ekran System | ObserveIT / Proofpoint | Teramind | BeyondTrust | CyberArk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen & session recording | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Real-time blocking/termination | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Behavioral analytics / risk scoring | Basic → customizable rules | Strong | Strong | Focus on access controls | Focus on access controls |
| Privileged access management | Integrated PAM features | Add-on / integrations | Add-on | Core capability | Core capability |
| Deployments (on-prem/cloud) | On-prem / virtual / cloud | Cloud-first / hybrid | Cloud / on-prem | On-prem & cloud | On-prem & cloud |
| SIEM / IAM integrations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Session redaction & privacy controls | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited | Limited |
| Forensic search & playback | Robust | Robust | Robust | Robust | Robust |
| Scalability | Enterprise-grade | Enterprise-grade | Enterprise-grade | Enterprise-grade | Enterprise-grade |
| Ease of deployment | Moderate | Easy (cloud) | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate |
| Cost | Mid-to-high | Mid | Mid | High | High |
Strengths of Ekran System
- Strong session recording with synchronized logs and keystroke overlays that make forensic review efficient.
- Real-time enforcement controls (session blocking/termination) useful for active threat mitigation.
- Integrated balance between UAM and PAM capabilities — good for organizations that need both monitoring and privileged session control without multiple vendors.
- Flexible deployment models for regulated, air-gapped, or cloud environments.
- Fine-grained role-based access and session redaction to help meet privacy and compliance requirements.
Weaknesses of Ekran System
- Behavioral analytics and automated risk scoring are less advanced compared with vendors that heavily invest in ML-driven analytics (e.g., ObserveIT/Proofpoint, Teramind).
- User interface and policy authoring can be less intuitive for some teams; initial configuration may require more effort.
- Licensing and total cost can be competitive but may be high for very large estates, especially if full PAM features are used.
When to choose Ekran System
Choose Ekran System if you need:
- Strong, searchable session recordings with synchronized logs for forensic investigations.
- An integrated approach combining UAM and PAM capabilities without stitching multiple products.
- Flexible deployment options, including air-gapped or fully on-prem environments for compliance reasons.
- Real-time session control (blocking, termination) as part of the toolset.
When to consider alternatives
Consider alternatives when:
- You need advanced behavioral analytics and ML-driven insider threat detection — vendors like ObserveIT and Teramind lead here.
- Your primary need is enterprise-scale PAM with deep secrets management and access brokering — CyberArk or BeyondTrust may be a better fit.
- You prioritize cloud-first, SaaS ease-of-deployment and minimal infrastructure maintenance — cloud-native offerings may reduce overhead.
Deployment and integration considerations
- Agent coverage: verify that the vendor supports all target OSes, thin clients, VDI platforms, and remote access protocols in your environment.
- Network impact and storage: session recording can generate significant storage; plan retention, compression, and archiving strategies.
- Privacy and compliance: ensure the solution supports redaction, allowlists, and role-based access to recordings to meet GDPR, HIPAA, or sector-specific rules.
- Incident workflows: integrate alerts with SIEM and SOAR and ensure session evidence can be used in investigations and audits.
- High availability and disaster recovery: for critical monitoring, choose architectures (clustered collectors, replicated storage) that avoid single points of failure.
Cost and total cost of ownership
Consider licensing model (per user, per endpoint, per concurrent session), storage costs for recordings, infrastructure (on-prem servers or cloud storage), maintenance, and integration engineering. Vendors often appear comparable on license cost, but storage and analyst time for reviewing alerts can drive long-term expenses.
Decision checklist
- Do you need combined UAM + PAM in a single product? If yes, Ekran is a strong candidate.
- Is advanced ML behavioral analytics a priority? If yes, evaluate Teramind and ObserveIT more closely.
- Will you operate in air-gapped or highly regulated environments? If yes, prefer vendors that offer robust on-prem deployments (Ekran, CyberArk, BeyondTrust).
- How large is your estate and what are retention needs? Model storage and review costs before selecting.
- What integrations are mandatory (SIEM, IAM, ticketing)? Validate each vendor’s connectors and APIs.
Conclusion
There is no one-size-fits-all “winner.” Ekran System excels when you want robust session recording, real-time enforcement, and a combined UAM/PAM approach with flexible deployment options. If your priority is advanced behavioral analytics or a PAM-first strategy with secrets management, alternatives like ObserveIT/Proofpoint, Teramind, CyberArk, or BeyondTrust may be stronger matches. Evaluate each vendor against your organization’s technical requirements, compliance constraints, and total cost of ownership; a short proof-of-concept with real-world scenarios will reveal the best fit.
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