Topic starter
10/06/2026 12:23 am
TL;DR: IAM best practices still matter, but cloud sprawl, standing privileges, and weak offboarding processes continue to undermine them, according to Zluri’s analysis. The real issue is not policy intent, it is whether access is continuously verified, time-bound, and revoked at the same speed identities are created.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Zluri: “11 Identity and Access Management Best Practices”.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when IAM best practices are applied to cloud sprawl too slowly?
A: The main failure is that access stays valid after the business reason for it has changed.
Q: Why do multi-cloud environments make least privilege harder to maintain?
A: Multi-cloud environments multiply identity stores, role models, inheritance paths, and operational teams.
Q: How do security teams know whether IAM automation is actually working?
A: Look for evidence that access is removed as reliably as it is created.
Practitioner guidance
- Strengthen continuous access verification Reduce reliance on initial authentication and periodic review alone by enforcing revalidation for high-risk access paths, especially in SaaS-heavy workflows.
- Time-box contractor and external access Set explicit expiry dates for contractor permissions, then make revocation automatic when the business relationship ends or the task closes.
- Automate deprovisioning across role changes Trigger access removal and adjustment from HR or workflow events so movers and leavers do not keep permissions that no longer match their role.
Bottom line: Cloud sprawl exposes the gap between IAM design and IAM execution, especially when identities move faster than manual review cycles.
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This topic was modified 4 days ago by NHI Mgmt Group
10/06/2026 9:31 pm
Cloud sprawl turns IAM from a policy problem into a lifecycle problem: the more identities an organisation distributes across SaaS, contractors, applications, and devices, the less useful static controls become. Access decisions age quickly in cloud environments, so governance now depends on whether identity changes are reflected continuously rather than reviewed later. For practitioners, the programme question is whether access state can be kept current at cloud speed.
A question worth separating out:
Q: When should organisations prioritise offboarding over new access features?
A: When stale access is more likely to create risk than missed provisioning is likely to slow work. If leavers, contractors, or role changes are not removed quickly and consistently, offboarding becomes the higher-value control because it directly reduces residual access and audit exposure.
👉 Read our full editorial: Identity and access management best practices are lagging cloud sprawl
This post was modified 4 days ago by NHI Mgmt Group