How to Leverage Advanced Identity Analytics for Better Identity Governance

As IGA teams work to manage identity security in the age of digitalization, traditional methods for managing user access and roles are no longer effective in ensuring both business productivity and regulatory compliance. Manual role definition is a time-consuming and error-prone process; and keeping pace with organizational changes is an ongoing challenge for growing organizations.

To meet new demands, many organizations are migrating from legacy Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) systems to modern IGA solutions. As they evaluate new IGA technologies, they are looking for innovative ways to eliminate outdated permissions, reduce the number of security vulnerabilities, and improve inefficient access control processes. Advanced identity analytics is a groundbreaking new method for organizations to streamline and improve role management and identity governance overall. In this post, we’ll explain how Machine Learning-driven data analytics helps IGA teams automate discovery for more effective role management, streamlined audit trail reporting, proof of compliance with regulations and internal policies, and optimized certification campaigns.

What is Advanced Data Analytics

Advanced data analytics within a modern SaaS-based IGA platform like Omada Identity Cloud leverages the power of Machine Learning (ML) to provide Intelligent Role Mining and Data-Driven Insights. To achieve Intelligent Role Mining, a modern IGA platform uses ML to collect and “crunch” data, then uses AI to operationalize it and drive accurate evaluations of user permissions and access needs. This enables the platform to recommend optimal roles for each user. This data-driven approach takes role discovery to another level, ensuring a perfect fit, saving time, and optimizing user productivity from day one.

The Importance of Discovery in Role Mining

Organizational role definition using legacy IGA systems is a manual, error-prone process that gets more challenging as the needs of the business grow more complex. Legacy IGA system shortcomings result in inconsistencies and outdated roles, leaving organizations with too many overpermissioned users and a greater risk of security breaches.

ML-driven role mining takes on this challenge by analyzing resource and identity data to automatically discover and define roles based on an organization’s access patterns. This approach offers a myriad of benefits, including:

Streamlined Role Definition

Automates role definition, significantly reducing approval times and ensuring roles are always up-to-date.

Enhanced Security Posture

Identifies and eliminates unnecessary permissions to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access.

Reduced Complexity

Eliminates overlaps and redundancies to simplify role management and increase overall efficiency.

Personalized Role Recommendations

By leveraging ML and user activity, a modern IGA solution unlocks previously unrealized insights that enable organizations to:

Automate role recommendations

By leveraging intelligent features like ML, modern IGA can recommend personalized roles for each user to enable better decision-making by managers to assign the most appropriate roles based on individual needs.

Simplified access control decisions

A modern IGA solution provides a self-service user portal where users can request access themselves instead of calling the help desk. This feature along with clear data-driven analytics enables managers to make informed access control decisions with greater efficiency and confidence.

Minimize permission risk

Data-driven recommendations significantly reduce the risk of assigning incorrect permissions, significantly boosting overall security posture.

Increase user productivity

Faster and more accurate role assignments ensure users gain access to the resources they need sooner, maximizing their productivity.

Leveraging Data-Driven Insights

Proving compliance with regulations and internal policies can be a significant challenge for IGA teams. Static reports and siloed data make it difficult to analyze trends, identify areas for improvement, and demonstrate a holistic view of access control practices. Advanced data analytics leverages ML to generate data-driven insights that break down these barriers with dynamic reporting within a modern IGA platform. ML uses advanced data analysis techniques to transform raw identity data into intuitive dashboards and reports. A modern IGA platform enables organizations to replace static, tabular reports with enhanced reporting for a more engaging and insightful experience. Interactive dashboards bring identity data to life, empowering teams to analyze user roles and access controls with unparalleled clarity. This approach gives IGA teams the actionable insights they need to optimize workflows, strengthen access controls, and demonstrate ongoing compliance.

Simple Audit Trail Reporting

Intuitive analytics dashboards are critical for enabling easier audit trail reporting. This user-friendly interface provided in a modern IGA platform allows IGA teams to:

Respond swiftly to audit inquiries

Powerful filters and clear, at-a-glance visualizations help teams quickly answer questions and demonstrate compliance.

Uncover access control trends

Identify patterns in user behavior and access requests to gain a holistic view of control effectiveness.

Fuel proactive analysis

Data-driven insights enable proactive identification of potential weaknesses, allowing for continuous improvement of access control practices.

Harden security posture

By addressing vulnerabilities early, organizations can create a more secure and efficient access control environment.

Redirect resources

Reduced time spent tackling audit reports allows IGA teams to focus on strategic initiatives.

Optimizing Certifications with Data-Driven Insights

Traditional reporting tools do not provide the insight IGA teams need to determine the efficacy of certification campaigns. Identity analytics streamlines the certification process with the following capabilities:

Campaign Visibility and Tracking

Real-time dashboards offer insights into campaign progress, enabling IGA teams to monitor progress, pinpoint bottlenecks in the certification process, and adjust strategies as needed to ensure all users are appropriately certified.

Proactive Risk Management

Advanced reporting surfaces users with missing or expiring certifications. This allows organizations to implement targeted mitigation strategies, such as access restrictions or reminders, to continuously ensure compliance and minimize security vulnerabilities.

Demonstrating Compliance

Identity analytics’ comprehensive reporting provides clear and verifiable documentation of certification completion rates and access control practices. This equips organizations with what they need to easily demonstrate compliance with internal regulations and external audits.

Conclusion

Using this data-driven approach to identity analytics within a modern IGA solution delivers automated, precise role assignments and minimizes permission risks, ultimately boosting security and user productivity. Leveraging identity analytics reporting enables IGA teams to elevate certification campaigns from a manual, time-consuming process to a streamlined, efficient, and demonstrably compliant program. Advanced ML-driven identity analytics equips IGA teams with the tools they need to optimize efficiency so they can focus more on the strategic aspects of securing their organization.

Ready to take your IGA to the next level? Schedule a demo today to see how Omada Identity Analytics can revolutionize your organization.