What is IGA? A Simple Guide to Identity Governance and Administration

If you run a modern business, you’re constantly giving people access to systems: HR, finance, CRM, VPN, cloud apps, and more. Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) is how you make sure the right people have the right access to the right systems – and that every change is approved, logged, and reviewable.

In simple terms, IGA centralizes who gets access, how they get it, and how that access is reviewed over time. It combines access management, governance, compliance, and automation in one place.

What Is Identity Governance and Administration (IGA)?

Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) is a set of processes and tools that help you:

• Define which roles exist in your organization
• Decide what each role is allowed to access
• Grant and revoke access automatically based on those roles
• Review and certify that access on a regular basis
• Prove to auditors that access is controlled and compliant

In many companies, IGA is delivered through IGA solutions or platforms that integrate with your HR system, Active Directory, cloud apps, and critical business systems. These IGA tools help IT and security teams reduce manual work, close access gaps, and enforce least privilege.

Life Without IGA: What Typically Goes Wrong

Without a proper IGA program or toolset, identity and access management quickly becomes chaotic:

• New hires wait days for access while IT tries to figure out “what they should have.”
• Ex-employees keep active accounts in one or more systems, increasing the risk of insider misuse.
• IT tickets pile up, approvals are unclear, and people start taking shortcuts like “just give them full access.”
• Anyone can get admin rights or powerful roles, and toxic combinations like payroll + approval slip through.
• Once a year, managers receive giant spreadsheets for access reviews that no one checks properly.
• Dormant logins, shared accounts, and old privileges pile up in critical systems.
• Vendors and consultants get “temporary” access that never expires and is never reviewed.

This is exactly the environment in which data breaches and compliance findings appear. In regions like the Middle East, the average cost of a data breach is around $8.7 million, and in roughly 68% of breaches, a non-malicious human action is involved. Reducing unnecessary and risky access is one of the fastest ways to lower that risk.

Life With IGA: How It Should Work

With a modern Identity Governance and Administration solution in place, the experience looks very different:

• Access is granted automatically when someone joins, adjusted when their role changes, and revoked the day they leave.
• Employees request extra access through a self-service portal; managers approve with one click, and every step is logged.
• Least-privilege roles are enforced, and segregation of duties (SoD) rules prevent risky overlaps in finance, HR, and IT.
• Quarterly access certifications give managers a simple “keep or remove” decision for each entitlement, so only the right people keep access.
• Regular scans and reports detect unused, over-privileged, or ownerless accounts, so you can clean them up quickly.
• Every external account for vendors and partners is time-limited and automatically disabled unless explicitly renewed.

In practice, this means fewer IT tickets, stronger security, and better audit readiness. IGA becomes the backbone of your identity security strategy and supports other initiatives like Zero Trust, PAM (Privileged Access Management), and MFA.

Quick IGA Wins You Can Start Today

You don’t need a huge project to start improving identity governance. Here are practical, IGA-style quick wins any organization can begin with:

1. Remove unused or orphaned accounts
   Run a basic review of your directory and key applications to find accounts with no active owner or no recent logins. Disable them or tighten their access.
2. Put expiry dates on vendor logins
   Any external user (vendors, consultants, partners) should have time-bound access. Set a review date and require renewal.
3. Enforce MFA for admin and VPN accounts
   Protect your most powerful roles and remote access first. Combining MFA with strict admin roles is a core IGA best practice.
4. Audit finance and HR application access
   Focus on high-risk systems like payroll, ERP, HR, and core banking or billing systems. Look for excessive privileges or conflicting roles.
5. Automate role-based access for new hires
   Even a simple “role-to-access” matrix for common job families (Sales, HR, Finance, IT) can reduce manual approvals and mistakes.
6. Launch a small access certification pilot
   Select one or two critical apps and ask managers to review who has access. Keep it light: just “keep” or “remove.”
7. Build habit, not just rules
   Make identity governance part of your culture: regular reviews, clear ownership for each system, and simple processes for access requests.

Why IGA Should Be on Your Roadmap

As organizations adopt more SaaS apps, cloud platforms, and remote work models, traditional manual access management can’t keep up. Identity Governance and Administration is no longer a “nice to have” – it is a core part of enterprise security, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Starting small with quick wins and then moving toward a structured IGA solution will help you:

• Reduce the risk and cost of data breaches
• Simplify audits and compliance reporting
• Improve employee onboarding and productivity
• Gain clear visibility into who has access to what – and why

That’s the real value of IGA: turning identity from a messy afterthought into a controlled, auditable, and business-friendly process.