Frequently Asked Questions
What is IGA?
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.
Who needs an IGA solution?
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.
What’s the difference between IGA vs. IAM?
Many people mistakenly think an identity access management (IAM) system and an IGA solution are the same. However, they’re two distinct processes.
Identity access management (IAM) is the software and policies that handle the actual authentication and authorization of users in the network. You can further divide it into identity management and access management.
Access management is responsible for verifying a user’s login credentials before granting access to the system. It also helps the administrators identify every user on the network. On the other hand, identity management defines each user’s privileges in the system – including the files and networks they can access.
Now let’s talk about identity governance and administration. An IGA solution is a more holistic process that can give administrators a 360-degree view of their IAM. It also enables them to audit their IAM systems to ensure compliance with set procedures.
In this regard, an IGA platform works with IAM tools to achieve a more robust identity and access control in the enterprise. They are two crucial elements of a holistic security solution.
What features can I expect from IGA Solutions?
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.
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