Securing and Scaling Identity Governance with the Cloud Application Gateway

The Critical Role of Connectivity in Identity Governance

When an organization embarks on a major identity governance initiative, it does so with the goal of reducing risk from unmanaged accounts, tightening compliance, and advancing its Zero Trust posture.

A global financial services firm, for example, will want to unify governance across cloud platforms, data centers, and long-standing core banking systems. It will hopefully do so with strong mandates and clear expectations: regulators pressing for demonstrable improvements, a board that has approved significant investment, and a security team under pressure to deliver visible results within a defined timeframe.

Yet for that financial services firm, momentum can quickly slow in critical areas of the rollout. Not because the governance strategy is flawed or the platform is inadequate, but because connecting the IGA system to core banking applications proves far more difficult than anticipated. Every attempt runs into familiar, often overlooked obstacles: firewall changes tied up in lengthy approval cycles, VPN configurations that add complexity without aligning to Zero Trust principles, and essential applications left waiting while integration teams wrestle with layers of network constraints.

The costs of these delays extend well beyond project timelines and budgets. Unmanaged systems remain exposed longer, opening the door to new audit findings. Sensitive data may intentionally or unintentionally be left outside governance, creating exposure at precisely the moment regulators are demanding stronger oversight. Auditors and boards alike will question whether the enterprise truly has control of its own environment. Executives grow uneasy as promised improvements fail to materialize. What began as a program designed to close gaps in oversight is now at risk of creating new ones.

This is why, in complex hybrid environments, connectivity cannot be treated as an afterthought. It must be a deliberate decision criterion considered alongside governance models, role management, and analytics. Without the ability to connect securely and efficiently to the systems that matter most to your business, even the most capable IGA platform cannot succeed.

Rigid Networks Undermine Identity Governance

Identity governance is intended to provide oversight across every system and application, yet the practical barrier is often connecting the governance platform to those systems in the first place. Core business applications, legacy databases, and operational technologies are often restricted by network segmentation rules or strict authentication requirements that confine access to specific environments, such as a corporate LAN or VLAN segment, along with lengthy change-control cycles, and cautious network policies designed to minimize exposure.

Enterprises have traditionally turned to site-to-site VPNs to work around these barriers. While effective at establishing access, VPNs extend the network perimeter and rely on static tunnels and routing configurations that can be complex to build and maintain. These models may deliver connectivity, but they also introduce rigidity. They cannot scale fluidly when organizations migrate workloads, integrate acquisitions, or adopt new SaaS platforms.

This lack of flexibility is increasingly at odds with how identity governance must operate. Identities shift constantly across projects, roles, and regulatory domains. Governance platforms need to expand in step with this fluidity. A connectivity model that is bound to rigid infrastructure slows integration, leaves sensitive systems unmanaged, and undermines the credibility of the governance program at the very moment when regulators and boards expect demonstrable progress.

Connectivity Becomes a Security Question

Connectivity challenges are not only about efficiency or scale; they are also about security assurance. Regulators and boards scrutinize how access is granted. They expect evidence that governance reaches the application and identity level, that encryption keys remain under enterprise ownership, and that audit evidence is transparent and defensible.

Traditional approaches fall short under this scrutiny. VPNs provide broad, network-level access that expands the attack surface and runs counter to Zero Trust principles. Connector catalogs from leading IGA vendors increase functional reach but leave unanswered the question of whether that access path is secure.

This security gap matters. When sensitive systems remain outside of governance control or are connected through mechanisms misaligned with Zero Trust, enterprises face more than operational delay. They risk new audit findings, questions from regulators, and doubts from boards about whether governance is truly comprehensive.

How the Cloud Application Gateway Addresses the Gap

The Cloud Application Gateway resolves both the scalability problem and the security shortfall. Deployed close to the systems requiring oversight, it is a lightweight, software-defined component that initiates outbound-only HTTPS connections.

The Cloud Application Gateway addresses critical pain points:

1. Eliminating inbound exposure: By initiating connections outward, it removes the need for inbound firewall changes and reduces attack surfaces.
2. Aligning with Zero Trust: Access is scoped to applications and identities, not networks, ensuring least privilege by design.
3. Reinforcing cryptographic control: It supports enterprise-managed encryption keys in vaults like HashiCorp or Azure Key Vault, ensuring the enterprise, not the vendor, retains ownership. This ensures a zero-knowledge posture is maintained that avoids any external custody risks.
4. Scaling flexibly: Being software-defined and container-friendly, it can be deployed rapidly across cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments, without lock-in.
5. Accelerating time-to-value: Integration no longer waits on networking approvals or custom routing. With outbound-only connectivity, systems can be brought under governance in hours rather than weeks.

For executives, this combination is decisive. Connectivity becomes a strength rather than a liability. Programs gain the agility to keep pace with business change, the security to satisfy regulatory and board scrutiny, and the flexibility to govern identities continuously across a dynamic enterprise landscape.

Connectivity as a Cornerstone of Modern Identity Governance

Identity governance initiatives are often launched with clear goals: reduce risk, close compliance gaps, and bring Zero Trust from concept into practice. Yet these programs are at risk of faltering not because the governance model is weak, but because connectivity was assumed to be a secondary concern.

The Omada Cloud Application Gateway changes that equation. It ensures that governance can scale with the enterprise, adapt to constant change, and meet the scrutiny of regulators, auditors, and boards. It turns what has traditionally been a bottleneck, i.e. network access, into an enabler of speed, security, and credibility.

Across industries, the implications are significant. Financial institutions can bring core systems under governance without opening new exposures. Healthcare providers can extend oversight into clinical environments while protecting patient data. Public sector organizations can modernize oversight while maintaining segmented environments. The pattern is consistent: where the Omada Cloud Application Gateway is present, governance delivers on its promise.

For organizations evaluating their next IGA strategy, connectivity requirements must now sit alongside governance models, role management, and analytics as a formal decision criterion. Without it, even the most advanced platforms will struggle to achieve their goals. With it, governance can scale, security can strengthen, and compliance can stand up to scrutiny.

The Omada Cloud Application Gateway is the only connectivity gateway that fully delivers for IGA. It combines secure, outbound-only connectivity with true Zero Trust enforcement, customer-controlled encryption, and the flexibility to scale across any environment.

For executives, this means governance programs can move at the speed of business without compromising compliance or control. For security and identity leaders, it provides the assurance that sensitive systems are governed consistently, that audit scrutiny can be met with confidence, and that operational overhead is kept low. More than a feature, the Omada Cloud Application Gateway is a differentiator, transforming connectivity from a barrier into a catalyst for IGA success.

To learn more about the Omada Cloud Application Gateway we encourage you to read the solution brief The Cloud Application Gateway: Solving Connectivity Challenges for IGA.