Technical Review by
Craig MacAlpine
For IT teams managing hybrid environments who need automated provisioning and centralized identity management, ManageEngine AD Manager Plus CSV bulk provisioning works across AD, Office 365, Exchange, and Google Workspace simultaneously.
For global organizations needing multi-language support and deep customization, One Identity Manager (IGA Suite) Out-of-the-box connectors for 100+ apps with custom connector options for niche systems.
For large organizations that need mature governance controls with scalable automation, Broadcom Symantec IGA SoD enforcement and access risk scoring prevent conflicts before provisioning occurs.
Identity governance isn’t a new problem, but it keeps getting harder. You’re managing access across more applications than ever, employees are scattered across offices and remote locations, compliance requirements keep tightening, and your help desk still handles password resets manually.
The hard part is IGA platforms range from tactical automation tools to enterprise-scale platforms requiring armies of consultants to implement. You need something that fits your scale, automates what matters, and doesn’t require you to hire a team of identity engineers just to keep it running.
We evaluated multiple identity governance and administration solutions across different scales and deployment models. We examined provisioning automation, compliance capabilities, ease of implementation, and how well each integrates with your existing infrastructure. We reviewed long-term customer experiences to identify where platforms deliver and where they require heavy lifting.
Based on our evaluation, here’s where each solution stands:
tenfold is an identity governance and administration platform focused on making access management approachable. It covers the full user lifecycle, from onboarding through offboarding, with self-service access requests and role-based controls across on-prem and cloud environments.
We found the self-service portal is where tenfold earns its keep. Users request access directly, approvals route automatically via email alerts, and scheduled reminders keep access reviews on track. That shifts permission management away from IT and toward the people who own the decisions.
Out-of-the-box plugins for Microsoft 365, SAP ERP, and HCL Notes mean you’re not building custom connectors from scratch.
Users consistently call out the automation for onboarding and offboarding as a major time saver. Support gets high marks for responsiveness, and the recertification feature is a clear favorite for audit-ready organizations.
One Identity Manager is an enterprise IGA platform handling identity governance, lifecycle automation, and compliance across hybrid environments. It’s built for global organizations needing multi-language support and deep customization. The platform sits within the broader One Identity Fabric, which includes access management and PAM, plus Active Directory tools.
The identity lifecycle automation covers 100+ applications, both SaaS and on premises. We found the out-of-the-box connectors handle most major systems without custom development. When you need something specific, custom connectors fill the gaps.
RBAC policies and access certification workflows simplify permissions reviews. The self-service portal lets users request access to resources and groups directly, cutting down help desk tickets. The integrated PAM component extends governance to privileged accounts, which we think makes sense for shops consolidating tools.
Organizations running One Identity Manager for over a decade highlight its flexibility. The platform handles extensive customization for process automation and security controls. Some teams praise the UNITE community conference for peer support and knowledge sharing.
Customers consistently flag the UI as outdated. Attestation workflows get specific criticism for poor usability. Several reviewers mention deployment complexity as the biggest hurdle, particularly for organizations without deep IGA experience.
You should look at this if you’re a global enterprise managing complex hybrid environments and need a platform that bends to your processes. The multi-language support and extensive connector library work well for international operations.
Broadcom Symantec IGA handles identity governance and access management for enterprises running hybrid environments. It targets large organizations that need mature governance controls with scalable automation. The platform combines lifecycle management, risk analysis, and compliance reporting in one package.
The Segregation of Duties enforcement caught our attention. We found the access risk analyzer assigns scores based on request context, flagging potential conflicts before they create problems. Role discovery and certification workflows automate what typically requires manual review cycles.
The provisioning engine connects to both SaaS and on premises applications. HR system integration handles employee and contractor lifecycle automatically. The mobile-optimized self-service portal lets users request access without opening tickets, and the entitlement catalog interface makes it clear what they’re actually requesting.
Users consistently praise the platform for being user-friendly despite its enterprise scope. SSO capabilities get specific mentions for simplifying application access. Several customers highlight the auditing and reporting features as faster and more accurate than previous solutions.
The HR integration stands out in feedback.
You should consider this if you’re managing thousands of identities across hybrid environments and need strong SoD controls. The risk scoring and certification automation work well for organizations with compliance pressure.
IBM Security IGI is a mature, appliance-based IGA suite built for enterprise IT environments. It targets large organizations that need end-to-end lifecycle automation with strong compliance controls. The platform focuses on integrating with complex enterprise systems, particularly IBM’s ecosystem and major ERPs.
The user lifecycle engine automates provisioning across 100+ applications, including SAP and ServiceNow. We found the business activity-based SoD approach more aligned with actual job functions than generic role definitions. This matters when you’re enforcing separation controls that need to reflect real workflows.
Identity analytics support risk visibility for role mining and modeling. The fine-grained RBAC for IBM’s RACF systems works well for mainframe environments. QRadar UBA integration enables insider threat detection by correlating identity data with user behavior analytics, which adds a security layer beyond basic access controls.
Customer feedback specific to IBM Security IGI is limited in available sources. Broader feedback on IBM’s identity platform suggests setup complexity and learning curves are common challenges. Organizations mention that initial configuration requires significant technical expertise and time investment.
Cost concerns appear in feedback, particularly for smaller organizations. Some users note that IBM’s administrative interfaces can feel dated compared to modern cloud-native alternatives.
You should consider this if you’re already invested in IBM infrastructure and need governance that integrates tightly with QRadar, RACF, and other IBM systems. The appliance-based deployment suits organizations with on-premises requirements.
ManageEngine AD Manager Plus is ManageEngine’s identity governance tool for Active Directory, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace. It targets IT teams managing hybrid environments who need automated provisioning and centralized identity management. The platform consolidates user lifecycle tasks that typically require juggling multiple admin consoles.
The CSV-based provisioning stands out. We found you can bulk-create accounts across AD, Exchange, Office 365, and Google Workspace in one upload. No switching between consoles. The workflow automation handles group assignments, alongside license provisioning and mailbox setup automatically.
Password resets, group policy changes, and file server permissions all route through the same interface. We saw the REST API integrations with Jira and ServiceDesk Plus work cleanly for ticketing workflows. The backup component for AD and Azure data adds a safety net that native tools don’t provide.
Some organizations have run ManageEngine AD Manager Plus for over a decade. They point to time savings in bulk operations and daily AD tasks. The compliance reporting gets consistent praise, especially real-time email alerts for user creation and deletion events.
Customers flag performance slowdowns in larger environments.
You should consider this if you’re managing Active Directory alongside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and need better automation than native tools provide. The compliance reporting works well for SOX, HIPAA, and GDPR requirements.
Oracle Identity Governance automates identity lifecycle management and access controls across hybrid environments. It targets large enterprises that need mature IAM capabilities with strong compliance automation. The platform combines on premises reliability with cloud deployment options through Oracle’s IGA SaaS offering.
The ML-driven role intelligence caught our attention. We found it handles RBAC, role lifecycle management, and analytics without requiring constant manual tuning. The wizard-based app onboarding simplifies integration work that typically requires heavy customization.
Risk-driven certifications focus reviews on high-risk access rather than blanket recertification. Closed-loop remediation automatically adjusts permissions after approval decisions. The flexible approval workflows adapt to different business processes, and PAM integration extends governance to privileged accounts. Docker and Kubernetes support through the Open Application Model enables rapid scaling.
Organizations consistently highlight smooth application integration capabilities. Users mention the platform handles complex identity systems and integrates well with existing infrastructure, particularly within Oracle environments. Several customers note that Oracle’s support team has improved, especially for critical P1 issues.
The common criticism is operational complexity. Customers describe the platform as powerful but requiring substantial effort to maintain and operate efficiently. Organizations with mature identity teams adapt well, but the learning curve and ongoing operational demands are real.
You should consider this if you’re already invested in Oracle infrastructure or managing thousands of identities across complex hybrid environments. The ML-driven role intelligence and risk-based certifications work best at enterprise scale.
Ping Identity Governance is an AI-driven IGA platform focused on automating access approvals and certifications. It targets large, complex organizations that need to reduce manual review workload while maintaining strong compliance controls. The platform uses machine learning to simplify decisions that traditionally require human judgment.
The identity analytics engine stands out. We found it flags high-risk access in real time and recommends low-risk account actions automatically. This cuts down certification review time by letting managers focus on questionable access instead of rubber-stamping obvious approvals.
The AI removes unnecessary roles based on usage patterns, which addresses role bloat over time. Granular SoD policies enforce separation controls automatically. Policy-based self-service works across SaaS and on premises applications, and the audit logs provide detailed risk insights for governance teams.
Most available reviews cover the broader Ping Identity Platform rather than the governance product specifically. Users mention configuration complexity and steep learning curves. Several customers flag the multiple interfaces across Ping’s ecosystem as administratively challenging for daily tasks.
Banking and financial services customers praise the authentication and authorization strength. Some reviewers note that training documentation can be better for teams learning the platform. Update frequency concerns come up, with some organizations finding six-month release cycles create agility challenges.
You should consider this if you’re in finance or another heavily regulated sector managing thousands of identities with complex compliance requirements. The AI automation makes sense when certification volume creates real bottlenecks.
Prove Pinnacle uses phone-centric identity verification to automate customer onboarding and fraud prevention. It targets financial services and e-commerce organizations that need to verify user identities quickly while reducing friction. The platform binds cryptographic keys to mobile devices for passwordless authentication.
The cryptographic authentication approach eliminates passwords by binding SIM cards or FIDO keys to user identities. We found the machine learning analysis of telecom and device signals provides real-time verification without requiring manual document uploads. This cuts onboarding time significantly.
The platform issues tokenized ProveIDs for secure access across web and mobile applications. Pass rates run up to 20% higher than risk-based authentication by using phone ownership and behavior patterns. Identity Manager maintains a real-time registry for user lifecycle events. The fraud prevention capabilities tie phone numbers to physical addresses, which helps catch synthetic identities.
Organizations running Prove for over a decade report minimal outages and strong reliability. Users consistently praise the support team and partnership approach. The API documentation and dev team support make integration straightforward for technical teams.
Fraud prevention teams specifically mention the Trust Score and passive verification reduce false positives without hurting conversion rates.
You should consider this if you’re in finance or e-commerce and need to verify customer identities during onboarding while minimizing fraud. The phone-centric approach works well for mobile-first customer experiences.
SailPoint delivers enterprise identity governance through two platforms: IdentityIQ for on premises and hybrid deployments, and IdentityNow as a cloud-native SaaS offering. Both target large organizations needing automated compliance and centralized access control. The platforms share core governance capabilities with different deployment models.
SailPoint Predictive Identity uses AI to monitor access patterns and suggest role adjustments automatically. We found this reduces certification fatigue by focusing reviews on anomalous access instead of blanket recertifications. The automated provisioning and self-service portals simplify onboarding workflows better than traditional ticketing systems.
File Access Manager extends governance to sensitive data on premises and in the cloud. The platforms handle extensive app integrations through SCIM and REST APIs. Federated SSO and password management in IdentityNow cut help desk calls. SoD policies prevent conflicting access that can enable fraud.
Organizations highlight centralized visibility and audit trails as major strengths. Users mention onboarding 60+ applications and automating HRMS lifecycle processes that were previously manual. The clean approval workflow makes it easy for application owners to review and grant access.
The consistent criticism is implementation complexity. Customers report 4-6 month rollouts for hybrid infrastructure and legacy applications. Custom connector development and ongoing tuning are often required. The flexibility to customize with code creates upgrade headaches when custom work breaks during version updates. Some users find the certification interface old-fashioned and confusing for managers.
You should consider this if you’re managing complex enterprise environments with thousands of identities and need strong governance automation. The AI-driven predictive capabilities and extensive integration support work well at scale.
Other Identity Governance And Administration solutions to consider include:
Zygon delivers a cloud-native Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) platform that automates identity lifecycle management and secures SaaS environments for modern IT and security teams.
Evaluating IGA platforms requires understanding your scale, governance complexity, and deployment requirements. Here’s what matters:
Weight these based on your environment. Small organizations need simpler tools that don’t require armies of consultants. Large enterprises can justify complexity if automation pays off. Global organizations need multi-language support and regional compliance coverage.
Expert Insights is an independent editorial team that evaluates identity governance and administration solutions. We do not accept payment for favorable reviews. Our scores reflect product quality only.
We evaluated 10 IGA platforms across different scales, deployment models, and use cases. We evaluated integration scope, automation capabilities, compliance features, implementation complexity, and ease of use. We examined how each platform handles large-scale deployments and whether it scales efficiently.
Beyond hands on testing, we interviewed organizations with long-term deployments and analyzed extensive customer feedback. We examined how well platforms handle real-world governance requirements and where implementations stumble. We reviewed deployment timelines, total cost of ownership, and the level of expertise required for ongoing operations.
This guide is updated quarterly. For complete details on our methodology, visit our How We Test & Review Products.
IGA platforms range from tactical automation tools to enterprise-scale systems requiring armies of consultants.
For hybrid AD environments wanting quick wins, ManageEngine AD Manager Plus provides CSV bulk provisioning and compliance reporting without massive overhead.
For large enterprises managing thousands of identities, SailPoint Identity delivers AI-driven automation with extensive integrations. IdentityIQ for on premises, IdentityNow for cloud.
If Segregation of Duties is your primary concern, Broadcom Symantec IGA enforces controls with risk scoring and HR integration.
For financial services with heavy certification volume, Ping Identity Governance uses machine learning to reduce manual review workload.
For customer-facing identity verification, Prove Pinnacle uses phone signals for passwordless authentication and fraud prevention.
Read the individual reviews above for deployment specifics, integration capabilities, and how each platform fits your governance requirements.
At its essence, identity governance and administration (IGA) is about increasing security and reducing risk by providing visibility into who has access to what systems, resources, applications and why. IGA lays the groundwork for creating and managing the policies, processes, and standards for your organization’s identity management functions.
IGA tools work to simplify and streamline user identity lifecycle management via capabilities like password management, automation, integrations, access request management, provisioning and deprovisioning, detailed event logging and entitlement management. IGA tools work together with IAM tools to make all of this happen seamlessly and gives IT teams the power to manage the technology while business leaders and designated stakeholders are tasked with the responsibility to decide who gets access to what.
Identity governance and administration is a policy-based approach to managing identities and controlling access. Identity governance is about the segregation of duties, role management, analytics, logging and reporting, whereas identity administration deals with account administration, credentials administration, user and device provisioning, and managing elements.
Particularly, IGA solutions provide valuable support in auditing and meeting the requirements for compliance. These solutions enable security administrators to efficiently manage all user identities and access permissions across the whole enterprise. This significantly improves visibility into identities and access privileges across the enterprise and makes it easier to implement the kind of controls that can prevent inappropriate or risky access.
In 2012, Gartner recognized the importance of identity governance and administration when they named it the fastest growing sector of the identity management market. IGA solutions provide added functionality that expands upon the capabilities of traditional identity and access management (IAM) tools, helping to address common IAM challenges. For example, the common IAM issue of inappropriate and/or outdated access to enterprise resources, as well as other challenges including those caused by remote or hybrid workforces, time-consuming provisioning processes, flawed Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, and strict compliance requirements. Each of these issues increases an organization’s security risk, and also weakened their compliance posture. However, such challenges can be addressed by strengthening the organizations IAM systems with IGA, and IGA allows organizations to automate the workflows for access approvals and subsequently reduce risk. They can also define and enforce IAM policies, as well as audit user access processes for compliance reporting. For this reason, many organizations use IGA to meet the compliance requirements laid out by HIPAA, SOX, and PCI DSS.
One of the issues with traditional IGA platforms is the cost, which is often too high for many small to mid-sized enterprises to justify when they likely don’t require the full functionality of these tools. These days the market focus is shifting towards a new model that is flexible enough to suit organizations of a variety of sizes, not just large enterprises. Many vendors are filling this niche with ‘light’ versions of their solutions that either have a less comprehensive scope of capabilities or are simply streamlined to focus on solving a few specific problems faced by smaller enterprises.
With an IGA tool in place, enterprises can accurately and efficiently streamline the process of managing user access, leading to improved security and a smoother operation overall. Specifically, an IGA solution works alongside IAM tools to:
Identity lifecycle management refers to the several stages in the life of an identity, from onboarding to leaving the organization; one of the most important functions of these solutions is to simplify the process of managing the lifecycle of an identity. Every identity has to be created, maintained over time (with appropriate updates made in the event of a job title change) and removed if the individual decides to leave the organization or retires. For smaller organization’s it may be possible to keep on top of identities manually, but for organizations operating on a larger scale it would not be feasible to manage the numerous additions, subtractions and alterations to identities without any issues or mistakes, so identity governance and administration products work to make this whole process much easier.
In today’s digital era the task of managing our passwords has become very complicated, with both the number of passwords each individual uses and the need for complexity and uniqueness increasing all the time. In fact, studies suggest that each of us is juggling around 168 passwords across various sites and services. Strong passwords are important for maintaining security, but it is impossible to create, remember and continually update dozens or even hundreds of passwords, so it is immensely useful that identity governance and administration product can help up manage our many passwords. Through tools like password vaults or Single Sign On (SSO), IGA’s systems ensure users can maintain security and easily access applications without having to remember multiple passwords.
Today’s businesses rely on smooth collaboration, which makes having control over and insight into which users are allowed access to certain applications and systems vital. Entitlement management deals with the association between identities and entitlements; entitlements are assigned to appropriate identities in order to give that identity access to a particular asset or operation. To facilitate users being able to make requests and be subsequently granted or denied access, IGA systems need to know exactly what entitlements (or access permissions) are available to request as well as give security admins the power to specify and verify what users are permitted to do / access. For example, some users may be allowed to add or edit data, while others are only permitted to view data. IGA systems let you to easily add, edit, and delete entitlements and other information used to describe them (like titles, risk level, descriptions, owners, tags, and other identifying data).
A good way to protect sensitive information is to restrict access to it and make it necessary for those without access to request it, thereby narrowing the window for mistakes or malicious misuse and ensuring there is a trail to follow in the event of a breach. A great way to deal with access requests in a quick and secure way is through an IGA solution with the capabilities to manage requests, approvals and fulfillment of access. These solutions route access requests to the right people and keep them organized, simplifying what could potentially be a complicated process with multiple access requests being made regularly and several approvers who need to be reached.
Connectors are simple integrations with other systems which are used by most IGA systems to read and write data from them. IGA systems need a lot of data on your employees (for example, their identities, attributes, and access) in order to work, so they use connectors to collect and read this data. They also write data which manages identity lifecycle events such as creating new users and granting them the correct access for their role.
Identity governance and administration systems can help organizations to automate the process of granting access once an access request has been approved. This first required a connector to be implements and then, with this integration in place, the process of granting access (or provisioning) can be fully automated. For smaller companies this may be unnecessary as if there is a small enough number of employees this can be achieved by one person or people simply keeping on top of the access requests that come in and granting or denying access accordingly. But, for larger organizations, this manual method would be too difficult to sustain.
Access review (or access certification) refers to the process of reviewing what access rights are currently being granted to determine whether this access is correct and if it should continue of not. A lot of businesses use spreadsheets to keep on top of this, but many IGA systems come with a way to easily perform these access reviews through a user interface, making its easier and quicker to capture, act upon, and archive the results for audit evidence.
Once roles at your organization are created, they may require continual modifications and updates, including adding and removing users to the roles and altering the forms of access these roles grant them. IGA systems typically offer user interfaces and workflows to make it easier to manage the process of maintaining roles, allowing you to easily keep them up to date and ensure that the access they represent is what users actually need to do their jobs.
Every day there is a flurry of activity related to identity and access management happening in your organizations systems and users perform a variety of transactions, access information and log into a range of applications. IGA systems with a strong set of features will capture information for different log files and perform analytics and reporting, summarizing and interpreting this activity so you can easily oversee it.
Mirren McDade is a senior writer and journalist at Expert Insights, spending each day researching, writing, editing and publishing content, covering a variety of topics and solutions, and interviewing industry experts.
She is an experienced copywriter with a background in a range of industries, including cloud business technologies, cloud security, information security and cyber security, and has conducted interviews with several industry experts.
Mirren holds a First Class Honors degree in English from Edinburgh Napier University.
Craig MacAlpine is CEO and Founder of Expert Insights. Before founding Expert Insights in August 2018, Craig spent 10 years as CEO of EPA Cloud, an email security provider that rebranded as VIPRE Email Security following its acquisition by Ziff Davies, formerly J2Global (NASQAQ: ZD) in 2013.
Craig is a passionate security innovator with over 20 years of experience helping organizations to stay secure with cutting-edge information security and cybersecurity solutions.
Using his extensive experience in the email security industry, he founded Expert Insights with the singular goal of helping IT professionals and CISOs to cut through the noise and find the right cybersecurity solutions they need to protect their organizations.