IGA Solution Use Cases

Identity governance and administration solutions (IGA) are policy-based approaches to identity access management across an entire organization. It enables security professionals and system administrators to automate user access to minimize the risks of hacks and breaches.

An IGA solution combines two distinct capabilities – identity governance and identity administration – into one unified platform. This allows for easier management through a single centralized location.

Identity governance deals with the role and associated policies of each user in the organization. It enables administrators and security and risk management leaders to define who has access to what in a network. Identity governance also involves processes that deal with policy violations and compliance requirements.

Identity administration involves managing user access in the network. Its tasks include device provisioning, entitlement management, and account administration. Identity administration aims to link users to the application data they need quickly and safely.

An IGA solution is crucial for organizations with hybrid (cloud and onsite) networks where thousands of users and devices connect simultaneously. This is especially important for networks that scale rapidly.

In these cases, IGA software provides the necessary automation to manage such a volume at scale when manual methods are impossible. At the same time, it ensures that the network’s efficiency and productivity aren’t sacrificed.

Identity and access management (IAM) is the umbrella discipline focused on making sure every user and non-human identity (NHI) in your environment has access to the right resources at the right time and for the right business reasons. IAM spans multiple capability areas, including authentication, single sign-on, privileged access management (PAM), and identity governance and administration (IGA).

IGA is a distinct discipline within IAM. Where IAM is focused on enabling and securing access, IGA answers the governance questions: Should this identity have that access in the first place? IGA manages the full identity lifecycle, from onboarding through role changes to offboarding, while enforcing policies like access certifications, segregation of duties, and role-based access control.

Put simply: IAM is about getting access to work. IGA is about ensuring that access is correct, appropriate, and provable.

Without a strong IGA capability, organizations can authenticate users and control logins but lack visibility into whether access rights are appropriate, compliant, and aligned with business policy.

Any IGA tool should have the following components.

• The first is connectivity. This element allows IGA security platforms to interface with other enterprise systems or databases containing account information. It can then read the data (to verify users) or write data (to add new users to change access privileges).
• The second is provisioning. This basic capability allows automatic provisioning and de-provisioning of users, applications, and devices. This enables instant access to data without sacrificing security and hindering productivity.
• The third is automated access request management workflows. New data and users are regularly added to a network, which would be tedious to manage manually. Automated access requests enable users to ask for access to the data they need easily. It also gives administrators an easy interface to approve and change user privileges.
• The fourth is entitlement management. This component enables system administrators to be very granular with allowable actions. For example, admins can set a user to read data on a specific application but not edit it.

Aside from these four core components, good IG platforms should also have a myriad of additional features. One example is the password manager, which helps users create strong passwords to minimize hacks. Technologies like single sign-on and multi-factor authentication (MFA) can also enhance overall network security.