Okta Identity Governance: A Unified IAM and Governance Solution

From financial impacts to disruptions in an organization's operations, cyber breaches have long had wide-ranging implications for enterprise companies. Due to the increased frequency of these breaches, the United States issued its first-ever executive order in 2021, calling for improvements to cyber security among organizations.

In this new world of heightened cyber defense, Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) tools, which were previously focused on compliance, have become a critical component of any identity-centric security ecosystem. Traditional IGA solutions in the market are siloed and are just not meeting the demands of today's modern, cloud-first world. 

Today, we are excited to announce the General Availability of Okta Identity Governance, a modern unified IAM and Governance solution focused on improving an organization's security and compliance posture, helping them to mitigate everyday security risks and improve IT efficiency. Okta Identity Governance rethinks the way governance is done today and builds on Okta’s cloud-native, intuitive technology, making it easy for IT teams to deploy and simple for employees to use. This is a significant step forward as we deliver a comprehensive identity platform and continue being a strategic identity partner for businesses worldwide. 

What’s new with Okta Identity Governance?

In early 2020, Gartner retired the IGA magic quadrant, citing market maturity and a lack of differentiation amongst traditional point IGA vendors. This sentiment was loud and clear when we reached out to our customers to get their perspectives. At Okta, we believe today’s expansive digital age requires a unified IAM platform, one with a holistic, integrated approach that allows governance to play a crucial and connected role with access management. Okta Identity Governance supports that by introducing three new governance capabilities to the Okta Identity Cloud:

• Okta Access Requests: Simplify and automate the process of requesting and approving access to applications and resources. Self-service capabilities, tightly integrated with popular collaboration tools, meet users where they are, delivering a streamlined, frictionless experience to auto-provision their access.
• Okta Access Certifications: Create and manage access review campaigns. Periodically reviewing user access to critical resources, and approving or revoking access automatically, is essential for ensuring that all users have the right level of access across all resources.
• Enhanced Governance Reports: Out-of-the-box reporting capabilities to help meet audit and compliance requirements. Administrators can provide an audit report of who has access to what resources, who approved the access, and how they got it.

Together with lifecycle automation capabilities powered by Okta Lifecycle Management and customization and extensibility offered by Okta Workflows, customers can leverage Okta to automate the process of granting their workforce the correct levels of access to the resources they need.

Our philosophy with Okta Identity Governance was to rethink the way governance is done today by building a modern product that’s easy to use and based on Okta principles of cloud-native technology. This means delivering a product that:

• Drives better security and compliance outcomes
• Is easy to deploy and maintain for IT teams
• Is modern and simple for employees to use

Let’s get into the details of how Okta Identity Governance enables customers to achieve these goals. 

Better security and compliance outcomes

Instead of simply checking a “compliance” box, a unified IAM platform brings together identity, access, and governance to actively improve an organization’s security posture. For example, customers today can integrate Okta with existing HR systems and directories and manage who gets access to what resources. If unusual activity is detected, like a high-risk login through ThreatInsights, or a lifecycle status change, you can trigger a certification campaign and immediately suspend access to a resource. 

With traditional IGA vendors, these scenarios often require complex and custom integrations, making it difficult to deploy and expensive to maintain. Additionally, new reports, available right in the Okta administrator console, make it easy for compliance teams to answer critical questions about who has access to what resources, how they got access, or when access was last certified. 

Easy to deploy and maintain

As Gartner® mentioned in their IGA Market guide for 2022, before making procurement decisions, it’s vital for security and risk management leaders to evaluate how (and how easily) IGA systems can be deployed, integrated, and operated within an existing environment.

Okta Identity Governance is built on the market-leading workforce identity cloud. It works seamlessly with out-of-the-box integrations to over 400+ applications and the flexibility to connect to any resource with a low/no-code workflows automation platform. The days of IT teams building and maintaining connectors to every compliance app are over, and we believe this new approach boosts IT efficiency while also saving organizations time and money. 

Modern and simple for employees to use

To securely manage access to applications and infrastructure at scale and effectively roll out governance workflows (such as approval-based app access or periodic certifications), employees and teams must have a frictionless self-service experience. Okta Identity Governance modernizes the IGA experience for employees, partners, as well as line-of-business users like app owners and IT admins. Using natural language processing and integrating with ubiquitous tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, Okta Access Requests meets employees where they are, delivering a simple and superior experience that every user in the organization will love.

We are excited to launch Okta Identity Governance to the market, and we cannot wait for you to try it and share your feedback. We see our unified platform playing a significant role in how your organization can do more to accomplish its goals with identity, and we are committed to continuing to innovate across it. 
Learn more about how Okta's new product offerings are reshaping identity governance or contact us with any questions.