Migrating from legacy or homegrown IGA systems can be a challenge. Learn how to successfully navigate your move by watching this webinar. User access review is an essential part of proactively managing identity governance. This step ensures that users are only given access to systems, applications, and data they need.
Set Goals
In identity management, IGA encompasses not just user access control but also governance and compliance. The best IGA solutions are designed to address these three aspects of ID management. They enable IT teams to certify users, identify security issues and risks, fortify audit trails, and generate reports. A centralized solution also enables IT teams to track access to on-premises and cloud-based applications, minimizing compliance risks while improving visibility into digital asset access and enabling differentiation. It helps IT teams advance operational workflows and diminish bottlenecks that lead to costly or catastrophic data breaches.
Define Your Needs
IGA is the bedrock of modern enterprise security, regulating access privileges for users and digital assets. Migrating to modern IGA can streamline provisioning and authentication, ensuring secure and appropriate user access levels and enabling zero-trust security. Leading IGA platforms converge key security functionality. Identify the business problems you want to solve with your IGA solution and then find the right tool to meet those needs. Often, companies apply a “lift and shift” approach that moves manual processes over to a new platform, but this doesn’t necessarily address core issues. It can introduce additional errors and inefficiencies if you must be more careful. For example, a typical manual process might have ten steps for access request and approval, but a reimagined IGA workflow can reduce this to just two or three steps. Ensure the new platform supports your business objectives and has scalability to accommodate growth. It’s essential in a digital transformation context. Stakeholders must see the immediate value and benefits of modernization, and a smooth transition is critical to ensure that momentum can be maintained.
Create a Plan
The key to a successful migration is to go into it with goals. A clear definition of what you want to achieve will help you determine the scope of your project and create a realistic evaluation of its prospective costs and timetable. As your company grows, the digital work environment becomes more complex, with employees logging in to multiple applications from different locations. IGA tools simplify the management of this dynamic environment, automating user accounts, role updates, deprovisioning, policy updates, and provisioning while allowing admins to control access to sensitive data.
IGA also helps your company maintain compliance with industry regulations such as SOX and HIPAA by enabling administrators to track and verify users’ activities as they enter and exit the network through security controls such as identity management, authentication, and authorization. This new-found visibility into the security landscape makes it easier to assess risk, respond quickly to audit requests, and improve overall governance and audit standards. Next-generation intelligent IGA solutions are cloud-native and enterprise-ready, providing fast deployments and sophisticated access automation along with intelligence and decision support for rapid remediation.
Create a Release Checklist
The modern digital work environment is complex, requiring access to numerous applications and systems. Mismanaged access can lead to security risks, compliance issues, and operational inefficiencies. That’s why it’s essential to have an identity governance and administration (IGA) solution that streamlines access management and enhances security.
IGA solutions help IT teams manage user associations across the organization, including their passwords and permissions, by providing visibility into activity and ensuring they maintain control over users, devices, and networks. When risks are identified, they can notify affected parties and start remediation processes. They can also address policy violations and generate compliance reports.
Prioritize a cutover approach that puts business value first to get the most out of your new IGA solution. It means focusing on processes and capabilities that will have a direct impact on your users’ experience, such as automating user lifecycle management, birthright access, or priority app onboarding. Additionally, it’s critical to find evangelists within departments to champion new processes and tools. It will help you build momentum for broader change.
Test Your Plan
It’s essential to test the waters and create a roadmap for successful migration. It involves taking a close look at current identity governance and administration (IGA) processes to understand what you need. You should assess the skills and stakeholders needed to perform tasks and consider what technology will be needed to meet both current security goals and future needs. For example, leading IGA platforms offer machine learning and analytics capabilities to streamline workflows like access reviews and requests. It helps eliminate unnecessary manual steps and enables IT teams to focus on more mission-critical activities. These capabilities also help prevent privileged account abuse and insider attacks, which often start with gaining initial access through a business-managed app and then using privilege escalation to gain complete network control. A comprehensive approval system supports transparent decision-making across roles, from application owners to reporting managers and IT admins. It ensures that all users understand why their request was approved or denied, which can help build trust in the process and make it easier to accept changes. IGA solutions with these features enable a more agile security organization fortified by robust audit trails and compliance reports.
