Identity Governance

The Top 10 Identity Lifecycle Management Solutions

The top identity lifecycle management solutions, with in-depth product listings and feature summaries. Discover features such as user provisioning, role management, and identity analytics.

Last updated on Jun 26, 2024

Written by Joel Witts

Technical review by Laura Iannini

The Top 10 Identity Lifecycle Management Solutions include:

1. Auth0 User Management
2. CyberArk Lifecycle Management
3. HID Global IoT Device Identity Lifecycle Management
4. JumpCloud Identity Lifecycle Management
5. Microsoft Azure Active Directory
6. Okta Lifecycle Management
7. OneLogin Identity Lifecycle Management
8. Oracle Identity and Access Management
9. Ping Identity PingOne For Workforce
10. SailPoint Lifecycle Management

Identity lifecycle management solutions help organizations to manage and secure users’ digital identities. This involves onboarding and offboarding identities, and provisioning them with the right levels of access permissions.

When a cybercriminal compromises a user’s account, they may be able to access all the sensitive data and files that the account’s legitimate user can access. If a user has more access than they really need for work (also known as being “over-privileged”), this presents itself as a goldmine to cybercriminals. They will have free access to use this data for their own means, or to make the attack more complex and devastating.

Another common way for attackers to gain easy access to corporate data is by hacking into user accounts that are no longer in use – usually because the user has left the organization. As the account isn’t being used, these attacks often go undetected, allowing the attacker to roam your company’s data freely.

Managing users’ identities and access over the course of their time with your company can be cumbersome and difficult. It is difficult to obtain full visibility and insight into which accounts are in use, what resources they need to access, and what resources they actually have access to.

Identity Lifecycle Management (ILM) solutions are software-based identity governance solutions that can help admins oversee and streamline the end-to-end management and security of a user’s identity. ILM solutions assist in user provisioning and de-provisioning, and can provide a framework for the creation, management, and retirement of identities based on role-based access controls and organization policies. These platforms can simplify administrative tasks, improve your security posture, and even help ensure compliance with regulatory standards.

We’ve listed some of the best identity lifecycle management solutions available on the market currently. In each case, we’ll identify some of the solution’s key features, before suggesting the type of organization that they’re best suited to.

Auth0 User Management

Auth0, a product by Okta, specializes in simplifying user experiences, from onboarding and logins to off-boarding. Auth0 has an intuitive user profile management portal, from which admins can manage their user directory and user access policies, all via a single interface.

Auth0 offers a scalable user directory capable of handling a vast number of users, and it can be customized with core and unique user attributes. The platform encourages gradual user engagement with progressive profiling, enhancing trust and data accumulation over time. Offering diverse user connections, Auth0 ensures effortless registration and login experiences. Users can create accounts, employ social providers, or easily link the platform with their chosen identity provider.

Universal login stands as one of Auth0’s hallmarks, permitting users to authenticate using their preferred social login credentials, resulting in quick and smooth authentication. The platform ensures a consistent brand presence across all mediums with customizable branding options. It offers single sign-on capabilities, allowing uninterrupted authentication across several applications with one credential set, ensuring a blend of convenience and security. Additional features include multi-factor authentication for heightened security and passwordless authentication using WebAuthn, a method that provides added protection against phishing.

CyberArk Lifecycle Management

CyberArk offers an Identity Lifecycle Management solution that centralizes the provisioning and management of user entitlements. The system focuses on automating user access provisioning, resulting in time savings and reducing the load on helpdesks. With the capability to dynamically provision and revoke access to cloud applications, the solution easily integrates with thousands of apps. It also offers self-service features that lets users request access and define accompanying approval workflows.

CyberArk’s system is built to control access for both regular and privileged users, streamlining the process and ensuring compliance. Through no-code workflows, CyberArk simplifies and speeds up the provisioning process. A significant advantage is its comprehensive reporting; this captures access details, making compliance tasks straightforward. By integrating with HCM systems, CyberArk allows businesses to maintain an HR-driven primary system of record and import identities from various HR systems.

One of CyberArk’s key features is its dynamic access feature; this automatically manages access to numerous cloud applications from the CyberArk App Catalog, adjusting as roles evolve. Central management is facilitated through the CyberArk Cloud Directory, which aligns user access entitlements within apps by linking roles to specific user groups. Furthermore, the system supports custom app integration using the SCIM protocol and provides automated provisioning for Microsoft 365, promoting efficient license management.

HID Global IoT Device Identity Lifecycle Management

HID Global offers an IoT Device Identity Lifecycle Management solution, focusing on establishing digital trust and streamlining the management of device identities. In partnership with Device Authority, this integrated PKI-as-a-Service (PKIaaS) solution provides cloud-based managed PKI, enabling the issuance of both public and private digital certificates to bolster IoT device mutual authentication.

HID Global IoT Device Identity Lifecycle Management simplifies device provisioning to prominent cloud platforms like Amazon AWS IoT Core and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub. Once trust is established, devices can be seamlessly provisioned and enrolled. HID Global’s offering also ensures efficient certificate lifecycle management; devices benefit from an automated policy-based engine, which takes care of digital certificate renewals, reissuances, or revocations. Designed for versatility, the solution boasts a flexible interface, integrating smoothly with any IoT platform and services using standard-based protocol support.

HID Global’s platform seamlessly merges with Device Authority’s KeyScaler to provide an automated, all-encompassing IoT security solution, deployable both on-premises and in the cloud. The system supports diverse business scales, catering to complex organizations, mid-sized enterprises, and small businesses alike. HID’s PKIaaS allows for the automated provisioning of certificates across all systems and devices in a cloud-based environment, coupled with digital certificates that ensure identity verification and secure communications.

JumpCloud Identity Lifecycle Management

JumpCloud specializes in Identity Lifecycle Management, offering a centralized and automated system for managing identities and access from an employee’s first day through their entire duration with a company. Companies can easily link JumpCloud with existing HR tools or other directory systems, whether on-premises or cloud-based, facilitating a unified approach to identity lifecycle management.

JumpCloud’s comprehensive solution streamlines onboarding and off-boarding processes through automating the creation of identities for new users, adjusting access during the user’s journey, and terminating access upon departure. JumpCloud also enables admins to manage hybrid users. By leveraging cloud infrastructure, the platform grants comprehensive remote control over identity lifecycles, regardless of user location. It can operate independently or integrate effectively with other tools in an organization’s environment, ensuring both administrative and user-friendly experiences.

JumpCloud also offers a range of identity security features. The system utilizes group-based access control, with features such as automated dynamic groups, to promptly provide new users with the necessary resources and limit the number of resources an attacker could access if they manage to breach a user’s account. Departing users can have their accounts suspended, thereby instantly revoking their access and ensuring the protection of sensitive data and procedures. Additionally, JumpCloud integrates multi-factor authentication, conditional access policies, and single sign-on across identities to maintain robust security throughout an employee’s tenure.

Microsoft Azure Active Directory

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), a component of Microsoft Entra, is a comprehensive solution for multi-cloud identity and access management within an enterprise environment. As an integral part of Microsoft 365 and Azure, Azure AD facilitates streamlined identity and access management, promoting a secure operational sphere.

Azure AD incorporates governance protocols to ascertain that only authorized individuals gain access to the necessary resources, effectively automating identity governance and ensuring security and efficiency in resource allocation. At its core, Azure AD introduces functionalities like single sign-on and automated provisioning, which can be customized based on the application’s capabilities and user preferences. It aims to simplify user access to various applications from any location, minimizing time spent on password management and reducing friction for users. By offering a unified sign-in experience, it aids in keeping users productive and enhancing the efficiency of access management. Azure AD is equipped with conditional access and multifactor authentication features, ensuring robust data security based on the contextual risk of each login attempt. The platform supports several standardized protocols such as SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, and WS-Federation, and it supports password vaulting and automated sign-in capabilities for applications reliant on forms-based authentication.

From a management perspective, Azure AD operates as a single identity control plane, granting complete visibility and control over the network environment. Through the Microsoft Entra admin center, it allows centralized management of identities and application access, whether housed on the cloud or on-premises, simplifying the task of overseeing and securing the entire identity infrastructure.

Okta Lifecycle Management

Okta Lifecycle Management offers an automated approach to managing user access from the moment of creation until deletion. This system ensures that employees can quickly access the resources they require, while also giving IT teams more freedom to focus on larger projects. Through automation, the process of deprovisioning becomes swift and secure, facilitating savings on software licenses and mitigating the risks associated with inactive accounts.

Okta Lifecycle Management allows users to establish flexible access policies and control end user access from a single interface. It also offers the ability to automatically grant or revoke access to third-party applications beyond HR systems, catering to customers, vendors, and partners. For those seeking deeper customization without the need for coding, Okta Workflows is available. Additionally, Okta Lifecycle Management ensures precise entitlement by automatically assigning appropriate applications to users and withdrawing access based on cues from HR and IT systems like AD and LDAP.

Okta Lifecycle Management enhances security via a user lifecycle process that logs and timestamps all transactions, providing non-repudiation. The system simplifies the auditing process by offering a centralized view of user access, generating reports on individual app access, and enabling data extraction to auditing tools through APIs. Aside from lifecycle management, Okta offers useful features like a cloud-based Universal Directory, Single Sign-On capabilities, Adaptive MFA, and Advanced Server Access to further enhance user experience and security.

OneLogin Identity Lifecycle Management

OneLogin Identity Lifecycle Management focuses on streamlining user management across various applications in real-time. By automating user provisioning, it reduces the manual effort and potential errors associated with onboarding and offboarding processes.

OneLogin Identity Lifecycle Management emphasizes efficient onboarding by importing entitlement definitions from every application and offering flexible rules for user entitlements. Role, department, location, and title are the basis for access control. For instance, a user added to Salesforce can be automatically assigned to specific groups like Admin, Marketing, or Sales. Conversely, offboarding is swift and secure. If a user is disabled in Active Directory, the change is instantly reflected in target applications; this is crucial to prevent unauthorized data access by ex-employees. Notably, any modifications in Active Directory are mirrored to other applications almost instantly, ensuring timely and effective user management.

OneLogin adapts to suit organizational specific policies and structures. This is achieved through supporting custom attributes from external directories, which can be pushed to compatible apps like Jive, Samange, or Salesforce. Its capacity to automate complex lifecycle management processes is further enhanced by OneLogin Workflows. These allows businesses to deploy custom logic for onboarding and offboarding, covering both cloud and on-prem applications. Lastly, OneLogin’s Universal Connector aids in the integration and synchronization of user data between directories and apps to maintain accuracy and consistency.

Oracle Identity and Access Management

Oracle offers a comprehensive suite of identity and access management (IAM) solutions tailored for both cloud and on-premises environments. Oracle’s IAM solutions present flexible deployment choices, enabling companies to select the ideal identity solution for their specific needs. The platform is highly scalable; it has the capacity to support millions of users and can integrate seamlessly with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and applications. This aids businesses in achieving regulatory compliance while also driving down operational costs. Capabilities range from cloud-native identity as a service (IDaaS) and cloud-native identity governance to on-premises software deployments, or a combination of these.

The Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite can be deployed on-premises, as software, or as an instance within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This suite ensures secure access for a range of users, including employees, contractors, and partners, granting businesses the freedom to deploy on their preferred infrastructure. Delving deeper into Oracle’s product range, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Identity and Access Management is designed to support diverse IT applications, ensuring swift user and service onboarding. Oracle Access Governance emphasizes governance and management across various applications and platforms, utilizing advanced analytics to provide insights into access entitlements and potential risks. Oracle Access Management centralizes identity solutions for risk-aware authentication and single sign-on capabilities.

Ping Identity PingOne For Workforce

PingOne for Workforce offers a centralized, adaptive authentication system designed to ensure security while maintaining productivity across varied work environments. With its capability to connect any user to any application on any device, PingOne offers adaptive authentication to ensure smooth access regardless of an employee’s location, be it at home, in the office, or on the move.

PingOne integrates with a vast array of enterprise applications, including Active Directory. This extensive integration capacity makes it suitable for organizations utilizing SaaS, legacy, on-premises, and custom applications. Emphasizing a Zero Trust security strategy, PingOne ensures the verification of every employee and device before granting access. It also provides both authentication and authorization essential for Zero Trust security. PingOne for Workforce is also equipped with identity intelligence, drag-and-drop workflows, passwordless sign-on, and centralized authentication.

PingOne’s orchestration abilities are designed to keep IT and security teams agile. Through its no-code design and automated workflows, PingOne aids in streamlining the authentication process, as well as keeping it secure.

SailPoint Lifecycle Management

SailPoint Lifecycle Management is an automated system for provisioning access according to predetermined policies. With this system, IT teams gain full visibility, enabling them to oversee and adjust access rights in real-time. From the moment an individual joins an organization, SailPoint ensures they have the appropriate access to applications and data. As roles shift, projects evolve, or employees depart, access rights are dynamically modified. Additionally, users can autonomously request access, with approvals driven by identity-based policies. Business managers benefit from AI-backed suggestions, streamlining the decision-making process regarding access permissions. The goal is to maintain secure access that’s compliant and appropriate for each user.

SailPoint Lifecycle Management uses AI and machine learning to delineate roles and manage access to specific job duties and collaboration tools like Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. By automating the access approval process, it grants users swift and secure entry to essential business tools, optimizes IT efficiency in managing access changes, and boosts overall productivity. The system also provides heightened visibility into organizational access, pinpointing and addressing risky or unused accounts. This reinforced security ensures that access adheres to set policies, with machine learning tools quickly identifying possible threats.

The Top Identity Lifecycle Management Solutions - Expert Insights

Everything You Need To Know About Identity Lifecycle Management (FAQs)

What Is Identity Lifecycle Management (ILM)?

Identity lifecycle management (ILM) is the process of managing users’ identities throughout their lifecycle within the network. This involves managing a user’s digital identity and their access levels from their first day of employment until their last. ILM solutions help to automate and manage the entire digital identity lifecycle process, ensuring that users’ identities and their access permissions are kept secure and blocked, restricted, or deleted as and when is necessary, e.g., when a user leaves the company.

Some identity lifecycle management solutions also enable admins to control the access permissions associated with each user’s identity. Users should only be granted access to the systems and applications that they need to do their job; for example, someone from marketing shouldn’t have access to sensitive employee information or dispute records that someone from HR may be able to access. Restricting user access in this way (also known as granting “least-privilege access”) means that if an account is compromised, the attacker will only be able to access a limited amount of corporate data. Users’ identities and access permissions should also be carefully monitored. As a user’s role and seniority change throughout their tenure, their access and privileges will shift too. These changes need to be appropriately handled and terminated once the user leaves the company.

However, users shouldn’t be restricted from data access to the extent that it hinders their workflow and productivity. Finding the balance between security and productivity can be tricky. Identity lifecycle management solutions help to automate and simplify what has traditionally been a cumbersome process by smoothing and streamlining the processes of onboarding and offboarding users, assigning and managing access rights, and monitoring and tracking access activity.

How Does Identity Lifecycle Management Work?

ILM works by managing a few key aspects surrounding users and their identities. It performs related processes that keep the user and their online work identities safe. A user’s identity lifecycle begins once a user starts their new job and has their digital identity created and assigned to work resources. For example, when someone starts a new job as accountant, a work account will be created for them and they’ll be granted access to financial tools, files, and data. Depending on their role and seniority, the accountant’s access will be restricted to encompass only the data that they need in order to work effectively. As their role and function changes over time, they may be given more access to more sensitive areas and data. Once they leave the company, their identity and any access must be terminated in order to prevent threat actors from taking over their dead account.

In order to achieve this, ILM solutions perform some key functions:

Onboarding: This refers to onboarding a new user by creating their new digital identity and granting them access and permissions to resources that are specifically relevant to their role, and nothing more.
Offboarding: Offboarding is deprovisioning a user. Once an employee leaves, their digital identity needs to be removed and all their access permissions revoked.
Ongoing Access Management: ILM is used during an employee’s lifecycle, as admins can change a user’s access level if their role or job function changes.
Monitoring And Reporting: Admins, through the ILM solution’s portal, can keep track of who has access to what, monitor security and access, and make sure that compliance regulations are achieved.

What Key Features Should You Look For In An Identity Lifecycle Management Solution?

Below are a few key features to look out for when choosing your ILM vendor and solution:

Centralized Monitoring: Admins should be able to manage and monitor users’ identity lifecycles from a single, clean, and consolidated console. They should give teams a complete and holistic overview of all digital entities that exist within the company’s system, along with the exact permissions each individual has.
Automation: Your platform should be able to automate and streamline approval workflows. It can also automate identity governance, allowing admins to update roles, revoke permissions, and adjust permissions in real-time.
Faster Provisioning And Deprovisioning: ILM solutions help admins onboard and offboard users quickly, often using role-based access controls to set up with what they need, ensuring there are few roadblocks when they begin their jobs. Fast deprovisioning ensures that, once an identity is no longer needed after an employee leaves, admins can quickly delete their digital identity and revoke all access.
Single Sign-On: Some ILM solutions provide the ability to synchronize passwords across applications using single sign-on, which can allow users to reset their passwords.
Self-Service: Some solutions have self-serve portals that allow users to request access rights and update their account information, without the need to contact the help desk.
Security: Security features that are beneficial include role-based access, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, access activity tracking, and security incidents alerting.
Integration: It is important that your chosen solution integrates well with your existing environment.

Joel Witts

Content Director

Joel Witts is the Content Director at Expert Insights, meaning he oversees all articles published and topics covered. He is an experienced journalist and writer, specialising in identity and access management, Zero Trust, cloud business technologies, and cybersecurity. Joel is a co-host of the Expert Insights Podcast and conducts regular interviews with leading B2B tech industry experts, including directors at Microsoft and Google. Joel holds a First Class Honours degree in Journalism from Cardiff University.

Laura Iannini

Cybersecurity Analyst

Laura Iannini is an Information Security Engineer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida. Laura has experience with a variety of cybersecurity platforms and leads technical reviews of leading solutions. She conducts thorough product tests to ensure that Expert Insights’ reviews are definitive and insightful.