Definition of identity governance and administration
Identity governance and administration (IGA), also known as identity security, enables security teams to manage and control user identities and their access rights across an organisation.
With a holistic view of all user identities and access privileges, IGA provides the visibility needed to create and enforce controls and policies effectively. Identity governance and administration solutions ensure that digital assets are protected from unauthorised access, that users have the access needed to perform their functions, and that organisations adhere to rules and compliance requirements.
Identity Governance in Action: Learn how SailPoint’s identity platform helps enterprises enable their workforce by securing digital identities.
Understanding identity governance and administration
IGA is at the centre of IT and security operations. It enables and secures digital identities for all users, applications, and data.
Managing identities within organisations began as a simple task of onboarding new employees. As the digital landscape grew and employees, , partners, applications, and even devices needed access to more applications, managing identities and access privileges became complex and costly. This gave rise to identity governance and administration.
Importance of identity governance and administration in digital identity management
Identity governance and identity administration allow businesses to provide automated access to an ever-growing number of digital assets while managing potential security and compliance risks.
Among the many business security problems that identity governance and administration addresses are these five critical objectives:
- Reduce operational costs
- Reduce risk and strengthen security
- Improve compliance and audit performance
- Deliver fast, efficient access to the business
- Automate identity lifecycle management
Reduce operational costs
IGA automates labour-intensive processes such as access certifications, access requests, password management, and provisioning, which dramatically cut operational costs.
With its business-friendly user interface, this can significantly reduce the time IT staff spends on administrative tasks and empower users to request access, manage passwords, and review access independently. And with access to dashboards and analytical tools, organisations have the information and metrics they need to strengthen internal and reduce risk.
Reduce risk and strengthen security
Compromised identities caused by weak, stolen, or default user credentials are a growing threat to organisations. Centralised visibility creates a single authoritative view of “who has access to what,” allowing authorised users to promptly detect inappropriate access, policy violations, or weak controls that put organisations at risk. Identity governance solutions enable business and IT users to identify risky employee populations, policy violations, and inappropriate access privileges and remediate these risk factors.
Improve compliance and audit performance
Identity governance and administration allow organisations to verify that the right controls are in place to meet the security and privacy requirements of regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
They provide consistent business processes for managing passwords as well as reviewing, requesting, and approving access, all underpinned by a common policy, role, and risk model. With role-based access control, companies significantly reduce the cost of compliance while managing risk and establishing repeatable practices for more consistent, auditable, and easier-to-manage access certification efforts.
Deliver fast, efficient access to the business
By giving your users timely access to the resources they need to do their jobs, identity governance and administration enables them to become productive more quickly – and to stay productive, no matter how much or how quickly their roles and responsibilities change. It also empowers business users to request access and manage passwords, reducing the workload on help desk and IT operations teams. And with automated policy enforcement, identity governance allows you to meet service-level requirements without compromising security or compliance.
Automate identity lifecycle management
IGA automates the entire identity lifecycle, from onboarding and access provisioning to deprovisioning, to keep access rights updated in real time as roles change or users leave. This helps IT and security teams streamline authorised access and enforce policies throughout the lifecycle.
Key components: governance vs. administration
Identity governance and administration solutions combine two key identity security functions:, identity governance and identity administration, to streamline identity-related security operations.
Identity governance — oversight and control
Identity governance involves policies, processes, and controls to ensure that user access is appropriate, complies with regulations, and aligns with security and risk management best practices. Key elements of identity governance include:
- Access reviews and certifications
- Auditing reporting (e.g., internal and compliance-related)
- Continuous risk analysis
- Policy enforcement (e.g., segregation of duties and least privilege access)
Identity administration—operations and execution
Identity administration focuses on day-to-day identity lifecycle tasks and policy enforcement throughout the user lifecycle. Key functions of identity administration include:
- Automated user provisioning and deprovisioning
- Password management
- Self-service access requests
- User access management (e.g., roles, groups, and entitlements)
How identity governance and administration solutions integrate with an existing security infrastructure
Identity governance and administration solutions centralise identity security tools and processes. They seamlessly integrate with authentication, access control, monitoring, and management tools to create a cohesive, secure, and compliant ecosystem. Several of the foundational integrations associated with identity governance and administration include the following.
Application and cloud services
Identity governance and administration platforms connect on-premises and cloud applications via APIs, SCIM connectors, and other protocols to manage access across SaaS, IaaS, and legacy systems. With support for federated access models, IAG solutions allow users to authenticate once with single sign-on (SSO) and access multiple cloud apps securely.
Authentication systems
IGA integrates with single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and identity providers (IdPs) to enforce secure authentication policies and manage identity validation processes. This integration ensures that users can access the resources they need while closing gaps between authentication and authorisation ().
Directory services
Identity governance and administration solutions connect with LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directories (e.g., Active Directory and Azure AD) to manage user accounts, groups, and entitlements. This allows seamless synchronisation of identity data and access rights across systems.
IT service management (ITSM)
Identity governance and administration integrates with ITSM platforms to streamline access requests, approvals, and incident management through unified workflows. Key functionality enabled with this integration includes:
- Improving users’ experiences by managing all access-related requests and tracking status updates.
- Supporting incident and change management for automated remediation actions, swift resolution, and policy compliance.
- Unifying workflow management to ensure that identity processes (e.g., new hire onboarding, role changes, and offboarding) are part of the broader IT service workflows.
Mobile device management (MDM) and endpoint security
Integrating identity governance and administration with MDM and endpoint security solutions ensures that device compliance is checked before granting access to sensitive resources. IAG complements these tools by ensuring that access to applications and data is governed based on both user identity and device posture.
Privileged access management (PAM)
IAG and PAM integration facilitate strong governance and control over both regular and privileged access (i.e., with elevated permissions that can access critical systems and sensitive data). Identity governance and administration solutions work alongside PAM tools to manage and govern privileged accounts, ensuring that high-risk access is tightly controlled, monitored, and regularly reviewed.
Security information and event management (SIEM)
Identity governance and administration solutions can feed identity and access logs into SIEM systems for real-time monitoring, threat detection, and compliance auditing. This enhances visibility into user behaviour and access anomalies by helping organisations correlate identity data with security events.
Features and capabilities of identity governance and administration solutions
The following are several important features and capabilities of identity governance and administration solutions.
Automating access requests and management
Identity and access governance solutions automate access requests by providing a self-service portal with policy-driven workflows that route approvals to managers or data owners. Users request access and once approved, the IAG solution automates provisioning across connected systems. It expedites access and enhances security as well as maintains a complete audit trail and enforces periodic access reviews to keep entitlements aligned with compliance requirements.
Identity lifecycle and entitlement management
From onboarding to deprovisioning, IAG solutions help manage the entire identity lifecycle. Entitlement management in IAG solutions ensures that users receive and maintain appropriate permissions based on roles or attributes. Automated reviews and real-time updates help prevent privilege creep and maintain compliance with policies like least privilege.
Access certification and audit processes
IAG access certification and audit processes require managers or data owners to review and confirm user access rights periodically. These solutions streamline these processes by automating reviews, sending alerts, and generating audit-ready reports that document approvals, removals, and exceptions. This ensures compliance with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and GDPR and helps identify and revoke unnecessary or risky access.
AI-driven identity governance and administration insights
AI-driven identity governance and administration leverages machine learning and analytics to detect unusual access patterns and flag them for review. AI also provides predictive recommendations for access requests based on peer group analysis, helping to streamline approvals while reducing risk. Additionally, AI enhances risk scoring and access certifications by prioritising high-risk entitlements for faster action, improving both security and compliance.
Benefits of implementing identity governance and administration
- Automates provisioning and deprovisioning, reducing manual errors and IT workload
- Enhances regulatory compliance with automated access reviews and audit trails
- Improves visibility and oversight of user access across all systems and applications
- Increases operational efficiency and user experience with self-service access requests
- Integrates with existing security infrastructure for a unified security posture
- Provides real-time insights and analytics for proactive risk management
- Reduces insider threat risk by identifying and revoking excessive or orphaned access
- Speeds up onboarding and access delivery for new hires and role changes
- Strengthens access security through policy-based controls and least-privilege enforcement
- Supports segregation of duties (SoD) to prevent conflicts of interest
IGA vs IAM
Identity governance and administration (IGA)Identity and access management (IAM)Supports governance and lifecycle management of identities and accessProvides a broad framework for managing digital identities and access controlEnsures appropriate access, compliance, and oversightAuthenticates users and authorises access to systemsAutomates access reviews, provisioning, deprovisioning, audit reportingProvides authentication and authorisationDemonstrates complianceEnforces access controls required for compliance
SailPoint’s identity governance and administration solutions
When it comes to identity governance, no company is better suited to help you solve your unique security and compliance challenges. Learn how we can help you protect your sensitive data wherever it lives.
DISCLAIMER: THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND NOTHING CONVEYED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE ANY FORM OF LEGAL ADVICE. SAILPOINT CANNOT GIVE SUCH ADVICE AND RECOMMENDS THAT YOU CONTACT LEGAL COUNSEL REGARDING APPLICABLE LEGAL ISSUES.
Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What’s cloud identity governance?
Cloud-based identity governance offers the same security, compliance, and automation delivered by traditional enterprise-class identity solutions, coupled with a lower total cost of ownership and faster deployment. Put simply, identity provides the power to make the cloud enterprise secure.
The cloud is transforming the way we work. Organisations must effectively address today’s complex business challenges, and today’s enterprise is becoming a cloud enterprise.
While companies are becoming more comfortable with moving strategic and mission-critical applications into the cloud, it can feel overwhelming to consider solutions like identity as a service (SaaS). They often avoid identity governance because they believe they lack the budget, time, or skilled identity resources required to implement it. However, these are no longer inhibitors to reaping the benefits of identity management.
At SailPoint, we remain entirely focused on identity governance, whether on-premises or from the cloud. Identity Security Cloud, our SaaS solution, is as powerful an identity governance solution as IdentityIQ, our solution deployed in the data centre.
Isn’t identity governance software only available on-premises?
While it’s true that the first identity governance solutions on the market were installed on-premises, today, there are cloud-based options for identity governance as well. In fact, SailPoint Identity Security Cloud provides access certifications, access requests, provisioning, and password management as cloud-based services.
Can identity governance manage cloud applications?
Identity governance solutions provide rich connectivity options that enable unified management across cloud and on-premises resources. All identity governance capabilities, including access certification, access request, password management, and provisioning are cross-domain, meaning they can be used for cloud and on-premises applications.
Does my company need identity governance, even though we aren’t subject to regulatory compliance?
Identity governance is a critical component of any security strategy. If a company does not have identity software in place, it puts them at serious risk of cyber attacks. Because hackers attempt to steal user credentials constantly, protecting identities is vital to keeping cyber thieves out of company systems. No matter what, you need identity governance to protect user accounts and privileges—and ensure effective access control.
Is IGA only for big businesses?
While it may seem like regulation compliance is a challenge only for large, international companies, the truth is that certain regulations affect every enterprise organisation, regardless of their size or industry. No matter what, organisations need to strengthen access controls to their sensitive data and applications.
Does identity governance support HIPAA and compliance?
Identity governance helps ensure HIPAA compliance by:
- Applying artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to monitor and identify unusual access behaviour
- Consistently enforcing access policies and applying controls to all applications containing ePHI (electronic protected health information)
- Locating and securing structured and unstructured ePHI regardless of where it’s stored
- Automating periodic reviews of user access rights
Our open cloud identity governance platform makes it easy for you to stay HIPAA-compliant, giving you visibility and access control for apps and data for every user.
What’s the history of identity governance?
Identity governance originally emerged as a new category of identity management. It was driven by the requirements of new regulatory mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Designed to improve transparency and manageability, identity governance gave organisations better visibility to identities and access privileges and better controls to detect and prevent inappropriate access.
In 2012, Gartner recognised identity governance as the fastest-growing sector of the identity management market. In its first Magic Quadrant focused on this market segment, Gartner stated that identity governance “is replacing user administration and provisioning as the new centre of gravity for IAM.” Gartner also estimated that growth rates for identity governance would exceed 35-40% per year based on increased incidences of well-publicised insider theft and fraud.
As more and more customers deployed identity governance and provisioning solutions together, it became clear that the role, policy, and risk models provided by identity governance were foundational to provisioning and compliance processes. At the same time, it became clear that organisations needed centralised visibility over both on-premises and cloud applications, as well as data files across the organisation.
