Big changes are afoot at cybersecurity firm Centrify Inc. The company, which operates in the privileged access management and identity-as-a-service markets, today appointed a new chief executive officer to replace incumbent and founder Tom Kemp at the end of the year.

Centrify is also spinning out its IDaaS business as a standalone company, called Idaptive. It means that Centrify will now focus exclusively on its privileged access management offerings.

Centrify’s new CEO is Tim Steinkopf (pictured), who had previously served as its chief financial officer for seven years. In a statement, he explained that Centrify’s sale earlier this year to the private equity giant Thoma Bravo had prompted the move to split the company into two entities.

“The more we looked at our business, the clearer it became that a huge opportunity existed to create two organizations that can each better focus on innovation, accelerate their respective roadmaps, and ensure customer success,” said Steinkopf. “Our new relationship with PE firm Thoma Bravo gives us the flexibility to execute this strategy and positions both companies for organic and inorganic growth to strengthen their market positions and offer even better PAM and IDaaS solutions, respectively, to secure the enterprise.”

Danny Kibel, who currently leads development of Centrify’s IDaaS solutions as vice president of engineering and operations, will take on the role of CEO at the new company Idaptive starting Jan. 1.

Meanwhile Kemp, who helped to found Centrify 14 years ago, will remain at Centrify but presumably have a lot less to do, since he will take on an “active strategic advisory role” once he steps down.

Kemp appeared on SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio theCUBE in the wake of Centrify’s sale to Thoma Bravo last July, when he spoke about potential acquisitions but made no mention of a spinout plans:

Centrify’s privileged access management tools are used to secure user access to customer’s information technology infrastructure, including DevOps, cloud and software container assets. The company adheres to a “zero trust” philosophy that works by verifying each user that requests access, understanding the context of that request and then assessing the level of risk before deciding whether or not to allow access. The concept shifts access controls from the perimeter of an organization to individual devices and users, allowing employees to work securely from any location without depending on a traditional virtual private network, firewalls or antivirus software.

Idaptive will also follow a zero trust approach to its identity-as-a-service offerings once it becomes a standalone company, selling a platform that combines single sign-on with multifactor authentication, enterprise mobility management and user behavior analytics. The capabilities help Idaptive to determine the authenticity of both users and their devices, and take action if any risky behavior is detected.

“Companies require intelligent access platforms that not only verify users and validate devices, but constantly learn to make smarter, faster decisions about granting user access,” Kibel said in a statement.

Photo: Centrify