Use case
Assign and manage machine identity owners
Ensure every machine identity has accountable ownership, with support for multiple owners, proactive succession planning, and governance workflows that keep access under control.
Challenge & solution
Accountability for every machine account
Ownership assignment ensures every machine account has someone responsible—eliminating orphaned accounts, enabling faster decisions, and strengthening your governance posture.
No owner means no accountability
Machine accounts often outlive the people who created them
Orphaned accounts linger unnoticed after role changes or departures
Without owners, access reviews and certifications stall
Unclear responsibility increases security risk
Ownership that’s accurate and up to date
Assign human owners directly from discovered machine accounts
Keep ownership aligned with role changes using automated updates
Support multiple owners for shared accountability on machine identities
Build succession plans to prevent orphaned accounts during transitions
Datasheet
Dig deeper into ownership assignment
Learn how Machine Identity Security streamlines ownership assignment for machine accounts—ensuring accountability and preventing governance delays.
Benefits
Accountability for every machine account
Ownership assignment ensures every machine account has someone responsible— helping to eliminate orphaned accounts, enable faster decisions, and strengthen your governance posture.
Every account has an owner
Link each machine account to a specific human owner to establish accountability. Owners can review access, approve changes, and ensure the account is used appropriately—closing a major security gap.
Advanced Capabilities
Take your identity security solution even further
The SailPoint Identity Security Cloud delivers the essentials for most organizations. SailPoint also offers advanced capabilities for specific needs.
Related resources
Machine Identity Security resources
Related industries
Where ownership matters most
Industries with strict regulations and complex environments have no room for orphaned machine accounts. Ownership assignment helps ensure accountability across the board.
Healthcare
Assign accountable owners to identities that support patient systems to help protect safety and privacy.
Learn moreFinancial services
Keep trading, payment, and reporting systems more secure with clear machine account ownership.
Learn moreEducation
Maintain accountability for identities tied to student systems, research platforms, and campus operations—even as staff and faculty change.
Learn morefaq
Ownership assignment: What to know
What is ownership assignment for machine accounts?
Ownership assignment is the process of linking a machine account—such as a service account, bot, RPA, or other non-human account—to a responsible human owner. This owner oversees how the account is used, reviews its access, and approves any changes. With Machine Identity Security, you can assign owners directly from the discovery results, ensuring that no account is left without accountability.
What ownership options are available for machine accounts vs. machine identities?
A machine account is the technical representation (like a service account in Active Directory) and is always assigned a single accountable owner to ensure clear responsibility. A machine identity groups together one or more machine accounts to represent an application or service. Machine identities support multiple owners, enabling shared accountability and ensuring governance activities, such as certifications, approvals, and succession planning, continue smoothly if one owner is unavailable, changes roles, or leaves the organization.
Why is assigning ownership important?
Without ownership, machine accounts can quickly become orphaned—meaning no one is responsible for their oversight. Orphaned accounts are a leading cause of compliance gaps and a major security risk, as they often have excessive permissions and go unmonitored. Assigning ownership establishes accountability, streamlines decision-making, and helps ensure that every account can be reviewed, certified, or decommissioned when needed.
What is succession planning for machine identities?
Succession planning allows you to prepare for ownership changes before they happen. With Machine Identity Security, you can proactively designate backup owners who can step in if a primary owner’s role changes or they leave the organization. This eliminates the risk of identities becoming orphaned during personnel shifts and helps ensure governance continues seamlessly, even during times of change.
How does ownership assignment work with other Machine Identity Security capabilities?
Ownership assignment is a key part of Machine Identity Security and its features. First, discovery and classification identify machine accounts across your environment and organize them into logical groups by application or service. From there, you can assign accountable owners to each account to ensure responsibility is clear. Lifecycle controls help you manage accounts through changes, while recurring certifications verify access remains appropriate and compliant. And because Machine Identity Security operates alongside human identity governance in a single platform and UI, you can manage all identities—human and machine—consistently and efficiently.