Non-human identity is a category in motion. Vendors are being acquired, standards are being drafted, and terminology is drifting faster than most enterprise planning cycles absorb. This section tracks the market itself, kept separate from the educational material because market facts decay on a completely different timescale from governance principles.
Review cadence
Everything in this section is on a fortnightly review cycle. Everything in Foundations is reviewed semi-annually, because the underlying principles do not move. That difference is deliberate and it is why the two are separated.
What we track, and how often.
NHI market consolidation tracker
Every acquisition and material transaction in the non-human and machine identity space, with the date, the reported value, the source, and whether the deal has actually closed rather than merely been announced.
Open the tracker → Vendor-neutralVendor comparison
Current ownership for every profiled vendor and the nine questions that actually discriminate between them, rather than the feature grid every vendor can answer yes to.
Compare vendors →What changed in 2026
The independent tier of this category largely ceased to exist over twelve weeks. If your vendor shortlist predates that period, it is describing a market that no longer exists.
| Vendor | Outcome | Status | What it means for a buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astrix Security | Acquired by Cisco | Completed | Capability folding into Cisco Identity Intelligence, Duo and Secure Access. Standalone roadmap is now a platform roadmap. |
| Entro Security | Acquired by SailPoint | Completed | Reasonable fit for existing SailPoint estates. Less so if your identity platform is elsewhere. |
| Oasis Security | Letter of intent with Cyera | Not closed | Signed intent is not a completed transaction. Contract terms should anticipate a change of control. |
The procurement consequence
Three of the questions in our RFP question bank exist specifically because of this consolidation: what happens to the roadmap on a change of control, who holds your inventory data if the product is retired, and whether pricing is contractually protected past the current term. Ask them regardless of how settled a vendor looks.
How to read a market in consolidation
Announced is not closed
A letter of intent can lapse. Track the completion date separately from the announcement date, because only one of them changes who you are contracting with.
Capability outlives the brand
Acquired products rarely disappear. They are absorbed, renamed and repriced. The question is whether the capability still ships, not whether the logo still exists.
Independence is a term, not a fact
Any vendor describing itself as the independent choice is describing today. Write the change-of-control clause you would want if that stopped being true.