Designing and Implementing an Effective Enterprise Identity Governance and Administration Program

Authors

Nick Nikols – Managing Director, Research / Principal Consulting Analyst

Vladislav Shapiro – Principal Consulting Analyst

Abstract

Organizations embracing digital transformation are taking a hard look at Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) programs. Enterprises need a consistent framework for operationally managing and governing their rapidly expanding digital ecosystem and IGA is an important piece. At its core, the goal behind IGA is simple: Ensuring appropriate access, when and where it is needed.

IGA combines entitlement discovery, decision-making processes, access review and certification with identity lifecycle and role management. IGA operates in the intersection of business process management and access automation allowing people and systems communicate with each other, fulfilling day-to-day operational needs. It focuses on the process and operational components of Identity and Access Management.

IGA is focused on addressing issues related to the mapping of business objectives to policies as well as creating a platform for the execution and administration of these policies. IGA is a bridge between the business decision makers and those that administer the technology in support of managing all aspects of governing access.

In this report, we will describe a target state for IGA in the enterprise and a path towards getting there. As part of the path forward, we include our IGA vendor short-list to give our clients a starting point in evaluating provider solutions in this space.