{"id":52372,"date":"2023-04-13T12:17:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T16:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-jc-marketing-site.pantheonsite.io\/?p=52372"},"modified":"2023-08-30T08:58:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T12:58:58","slug":"what-is-identity-governance-and-administration-iga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/what-is-identity-governance-and-administration-iga","title":{"rendered":"What is Identity Governance and Administration (IGA)?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Identity governance and administration (IGA) is a policy-based approach to identity management and access control that efficiently mitigates risk and improves compliance organization-wide. Understanding IGA starts with understanding each of the two parts separately \u2014 identity governance and identity administration. The former addresses the segregation of duties, role management, logging, analytics, and reporting. The latter addresses credential and account administration, device and user provisioning and deprovisioning, and entitlement management. Combining the two of these improves compliance and mitigates risk by enabling functionality that\u2019s beyond the scope of traditional identity and access management (IAM) systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Identity governance and administration tools help simplify and streamline user identity lifecycle management<\/a> through capabilities such as password management, integrations, automation, access request management, detailed event logging, provisioning and deprovisioning, and entitlement management. IGA tools work with IAM tools<\/a> to make all of this happen in the most seamless and efficient way possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue is, traditional IGA platforms can be expensive, and many small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) don\u2019t require the full functionality of these tools, nor do they want to pay for them. The market focus is shifting<\/a> to a new model that works for everyone, not just large enterprises with extensive resources. Vendors are now offering \u201clight\u201d IGA capabilities or concentrating on solving just a few problems that smaller enterprises face, rather than trying to provide an extensive suite of products and services that are not needed. These modest IGA solutions are the future and a great option for those organizations with no IGA solution in place already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many SMEs find that implementing a single IAM solution with IGA capabilities<\/a> is the best route to take to reap the benefits of both without making the lives of IT admins more difficult than necessary. The difference between IAM and IGA is that IGA allows organizations to define and enforce IAM policy and connect IAM functions to meet audit and compliance requirements. So the primary purpose of identity governance and administration is to connect and enforce IAM policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As organizations continue adding cutting-edge technology into their IT environments, allowing employees to work remotely, and scaling quickly, it\u2019s important to find and use tools that make day-to-day operations run as smoothly as possible. This also needs to be done in the most secure and compliant way possible to avoid future headaches around breaches and audits. An IGA solution can help facilitate smooth operations, and there are a variety of other benefits that come with the adoption of one of these tools such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n User management has evolved dramatically as many organizations have relaxed work-from-home policies \u2014 users used to primarily be in the office every day which allowed for easy, secure access to their devices. When onboarding and offboarding, managers and IT personnel typically had direct physical access to the resources that they needed to manage and change, but now that\u2019s not necessarily the case. This means that new solutions need to be leveraged to maintain the proper level of control over users, devices, networks, and other IT resources, and this is where an IGA solution becomes integral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An IAM solution with IGA capabilities can provide the following benefits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only does implementing an IGA solution help streamline user identity lifecycle management through data logging and analysis, but these data capabilities plus reporting help organizations to prove compliance and make critical decisions. The centralization of this data helps IT admins get a high-level view of what’s happening across the IT environment, allowing them to quickly make changes and troubleshoot problems that could have easily become worse if left untreated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A pertinent example of this is JumpCloud’s Directory Insights\u2122<\/a> which allows users to find, filter, export, and save data for later use via the JumpCloud Admin Portal or API. The ability to quickly view and analyze organization-wide data can be the difference between proactively protecting the organization’s critical resources or retroactively picking up the pieces after an attack that could have been prevented with the right tools in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An IGA solution reduces risk and improves compliance and security by managing access control in a comprehensive and streamlined manner. By using tools that streamline user identity lifecycle management, your organization is at less risk for the wrong users having access to confidential information, and you have higher visibility into what different users do and do not have access to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few other benefits that come from adopting an IGA solution are:<\/p>\n\n\n\nBenefits of IGA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Streamlined User Identity Lifecycle Management<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Detailed Event Logging, Analysis, and Reporting<\/span> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Risk Reduction Through Improved Compliance and Security<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n