Repetitive, manual processes are not only inefficient, but also introduce significant risk because the person doing the task may not have the required information to make the right decisions, or they may miss something due to the banality of the task.
This is particularly true in identity and access management, where the need for precise, timely control over who has access to what is critical. Many identity products on the market today offer flexible workflows that allow organizations to manually capture and audit every step of an identity change. However, the repetitive actions that these workflows entail, such as approval requests and access reviews, are often rubber stamped by managers without either understanding the implications of the requests fully, or just out of boredom. While the flexibility manual processes offer is useful, it also introduces inefficiencies and substantial risk.
Organizations typically already capture the necessary business justifications for granting or revoking access within their existing business systems. These systems might include Human Resources (HR) databases, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, Customer Success Management (CSM) platforms, IT Service Management (ITSM) systems, and on-call rotation trackers, among others. These tools store valuable data about employees, roles, customer interactions, and system usage—data that could dynamically and accurately inform access management decisions.
The case against manual workflows
Manual privilege management, which often relies on static roles and groups, has been the traditional method for controlling access within organizations. While this approach allows for granular control, it has its drawbacks. Over time, the number of roles and groups can proliferate, leading to a sprawling web of permissions that are difficult to manage and prone to errors. This sprawl often results in users being over-permissioned, creating unnecessary security risks, or, conversely, in critical access gaps.
Regardless of which access model is being used (RBAC or ABAC), manual processes necessarily imply coarse-grained access permissions, because it will be incredibly inefficient to control access at a fine-grained level using manual controls.
One of the most significant challenges with manual workflows is the reliance on periodic access reviews. Managers are tasked with reviewing and approving access rights across various systems, often without a clear understanding of what specific entitlements mean or how they impact daily operations. This lack of clarity can lead to a practice of rubber-stamping approvals, perpetuating excessive standing access and leaving the organization vulnerable to potential breaches.
The power of policy-driven access management
Instead of relying on manual workflows, organizations should leverage the data already present in their various business systems to drive access management decisions automatically. By implementing policies that draw on this data, access can be granted or revoked dynamically, based on real-time insights rather than static, manually-triggered processes. This approach not only speeds up the process but also ensures that access decisions are always based on the most current information available.
Implementing policy-driven access management, however, is not without its challenges. Business systems are often disparate, each with its own latency, availability, and data consistency issues. For example, an HR system might update once a day, while a CRM tool might update in real-time. These differences can create variability that, if not managed correctly, could lead to inconsistent access decisions.
SGNL: Insulating access decisions from variability
This is where SGNL comes in. SGNL’s access management solution is designed to insulate access decisions from the variability inherent in disparate business systems. By abstracting the access management layer from the underlying data sources, SGNL ensures that access decisions are consistent, accurate, and timely, regardless of the latency or availability of the data. This allows organizations to move beyond manual workflows and embrace a policy-driven approach to identity management that is both efficient and reliable.
With SGNL, organizations can automate their access management processes, reduce the burden of manual workflows, and ensure that access decisions are always based on the most accurate, up-to-date information available. This not only enhances security but also improves operational efficiency, allowing businesses to focus on what they do best, without being bogged down by the complexities of identity management.