Getting to the Next IGA Summit

In most technology markets, innovation comes in fits and starts. There are a few years of rapid innovation, until we get to the point where all solutions look the same and the market seems to plateau. Look at today’s smartphone market: Most Android phones are virtually indistinguishable.

Clear Skye has been saying for quite some time that the identity governance and administration (IGA) space has entered a period of stagnation. While the identity and access management (IAM) space continues to innovate, IGA seems to be waiting to find the path back to increased value and rapid innovation.

It turns out we’re not the only ones who think this way. Recently Garrett Bekker of 451 Research articulated three important – and familiar – reasons why an IGA program can stall.

• It’s not a C-level imperative.
• Highly skilled security staff are in short supply.
• Projects are often over budget.

There’s other evidence, too. Gartner is retiring its Magic Quadrant for IGA. Former market leaders such as CA, Microsoft, and Oracle have all but dropped out of the market. The current IGA market leader, SailPoint, has a market valuation that’s just 10% of their Access Management analogue Okta.

So how do we start pushing the space forward again? Again, Bekker’s points align with what we have been saying all along.

Tie IGA to broader digital transformation initiatives. All too often, IGA remains in a silo even though it’s a critical part of businesses process ranging from Asset Management to Incident Response to Human Resources. Making IGA part of the “Technology Dream Team” will demonstrate its value to executive leadership. One valuable way to do this is to link IGA and IT Service Management, as this brings efficiency to the Help Desk and visibility to risk management.

Build on the ServiceNow NOW Platform. Large companies are more likely to have internal ServiceNow expertise than IGA expertise, which also requires working knowledge of IAM and a number of other enterprise software suites. This approach helps companies overcome the lack of security personnel – and it helps keep projects budgets in check, as companies need fewer costly external IGA resources. Plus, the NOW Platform brings together all those key business processes, so connections to IGA can be managed natively instead of writing custom integrations.

Set the right expectations. The benefits of IGA are both broad and deep, enabling both IT optimization and enhanced security and governance. But success requires commitment throughout the organization, from IT professionals outside the IGA team who need to provide support and from business users who need to buy into a new way of doing things. IGA success is all about expectations; a phased approach that is well defined and starts with the fastest time to value – governance and/or critical applications – will allow a project to gain momentum and deliver results.

The IGA market may be in a period of stagnation now, but we at Clear Skye don’t think it has to be this way. If you agree, and you’re looking for #ABetterWaytoIGA, drop us a line. We’d love to talk about how we might be able to work together.

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