What is Identity Governance and Administration IGA?

Understanding Identity Governance and Administration IGA

Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) platforms address the fundamental challenges of managing user access at scale—ensuring the right people have the right access to the right resources for the right reasons, and proving this to auditors. They combine identity lifecycle management (efficiently provisioning and deprovisioning access as people join, move within, or leave the organization) with access governance (ensuring access rights comply with policies and regulations). Key capabilities typically include automated provisioning workflows, access certification campaigns where managers periodically review and attest to their employees' access rights, role-based access control models, and detailed audit reporting. These platforms shine in complex environments with hundreds of applications and thousands of users, where manual access management becomes practically impossible. Organizations implementing IGA typically struggle with challenges like accurately mapping existing access permissions, defining appropriate roles that balance security with operational needs, and integrating with legacy applications that lack modern identity APIs. Successful implementations require strong governance processes alongside the technology, with clear ownership for access policy decisions.