What is Access Management?

What is Access Management?

Access Management is a set of documented processes in an Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) system that enable administrators to control the granting of access rights to users while ensuring users do not violate organizational security policies and adhere to compliance regulations such as separation of duties (SoD).

When administrators create identities for employees, contractors, vendors and other stakeholders in their IT architectures, they initiate an identity lifecycle management process for these users in the organization. Throughout the identity lifecycle, as users move around the organization their needs to access data, applications, and other resources change. Access Management processes enable administrators to ensure users have access rights sufficient to perform day-to-day responsibilities in whatever role they are in. Maintaining appropriate access management for users is a constantly moving target; frequently administrators need to extend access rights to a system because a user has been assigned to a new department or region, or because they get promoted and require access to additional functionality in applications they already use. At the same time, organizations may onboard new applications and sensitive resources to the IT architecture to which users must have access to do their jobs.

The Role of Access Management in IGA

Efficient Access Management is foundational to the establishment of an effective IGA system. There are three core process groups that make up an Access Management approach. These are:

Request Access Rights

This makes it possible for users to manage access rights through a self-service portal. In the portal, users provide the necessary information to approvers to gain access to new resources quickly without introducing security and compliance violations.

In a SaaS-based IGA solution, when users initiate the request access process, they are prompted to provide the business justification for the new access. This triggers an approval of access request process, then a designated approver approves or rejects it. The request also triggers an automatic check of separation of duties policy to ensure that the new access will not grant a toxic combination of access for the user. If the manager approves, the user gains the new access automatically. A manager can also make access requests on behalf of a contractor or employee who is not as familiar with the system. The process also creates an approval log for each access request so approvers can see the reasoning for the approval.

Evaluate and Act

This process manages the routing of self-service access requests for approval, automates removal of access rights that are no longer needed, and processes the delegation of access rights to cover an employee leaving or an extended absence, for example.

Provisioning

A SaaS-based IGA solution automates the process of provisioning or assigning access rights for a user in a specific business system. A manual provisioning process ensures that administrators can provision to systems not connected to the IGA system and still monitor and log activities within the IGA solution to meet auditing and compliance requirements. Users can make requests in the IGA system and the provisioner, the user or user group responsible for handling the request gets a notification to execute the request manually and confirms in the IGA system that the task is completed. Both the requester and provisioner logs relevant information into the IGA system.

Access Management with a Modern SaaS-based IGA Solution

Access Management accounts for all the processes necessary to manage user requests, starting with a user requesting access to a system which is then approved by managers or business system owners through to the removal of access when it is no longer needed by the employee.

Access Management also allows for the delegation of access rights to other employees either on a short-term or long-term basis.

A SaaS-based IGA solution enables users to request access to systems or applications necessary to do their jobs, automatically routes the request to relevant approvers and performs checks to ensure that any granted access does not violate SoD or other policies.

Where to Get Help and Learn More

In legacy IGA systems, Access Management is cumbersome to the point that it is often perceived as barriers to both productivity and efficiency.

A SaaS-based IGA solution like Omada Identity Cloud enables Access Management functionality like just-in-time provisioning that gives users access to applications and data only when they need it. This ensures maximum user productivity while maintaining security, meeting compliance requirements, and reducing risk. Learn more.