Why Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) is gaining relevance

Manual maintenance of identities and access is practically no longer possible above a certain company size – at least not with a reasonable amount of effort for the IT department. In medium-sized and large companies, the number of accounts to be managed is simply too large. However, if users and access rights are not properly set up and kept up to date, this results in enormous security risks that can cause immense damage and, in the worst case, even lead to company closures. Software solutions for Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) provide a remedy by automating the entire identity lifecycle, thereby not only increasing efficiency but also significantly improving security.

How to proceed with the introduction of an IGA system

Findings on the IGA situation in companies

What is the state of identity and access management in companies and what are the biggest challenges at the moment? Omada’s report “The State of Identity Governance 2025” addresses these questions. The results reveal an astonishing discrepancy. On the one hand, companies report growing visibility and increasing investment in identity security as well as growing awareness of the importance of the topic. On the other hand, the management of identities and access rights shows considerable weaknesses in many companies.

For example, the survey revealed that 60% of all identities were inactive at the time of the survey, i.e. had not used any of their access rights in the previous 90 days. 2% of the rights provided would have been sufficient for employees to carry out their work. 50% of the identities were “super identities” with administrative rights. If such identities are misused, the consequences for the company can be particularly devastating. In addition, the risk potential increases even further if a large number of accounts with admin rights are dormant. 84% of companies reported security incidents related to identities in the study. 78% had to deal with impacts on their business that were directly attributable to poorly managed identities.

IGA system brings security and efficiency

The introduction of an IGA system is a direct route to greater IT security. Around 75% of respondents agree that modern solutions for identity governance & administration simplify authorization management. The most common motives for introducing an IGA system were compliance with regulatory requirements and the realization of efficiency gains. Evaluating the use of a cloud-based IGA solution can be worthwhile for companies for two reasons: With cloud systems, they achieve results much faster and reduce the total cost of ownership. Cloud-based IGA tools also offer greater flexibility, which is an advantage in view of the dynamic threat situation and rapidly changing business requirements. Traditional on-premise systems with a high level of customization sometimes prove to be too cumbersome here.

Conclusion: Need for action despite greater security awareness

Overall, there is a strong increase in awareness of identity-related security risks in companies. However, a large number of users still have access to systems and applications that they do not need, or have overly privileged accounts that pose an unnecessary security risk. Implementing an IGA solution is undoubtedly a massive win for security, compliance, efficiency and user satisfaction. In the future, the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning offers enormous potential to achieve additional benefits not only for end users, but also for other target groups such as auditors.