Topic starter
11/07/2026 1:58 pm
TL;DR: Access review automation is being positioned as the practical way to reduce permission drift, speed up audits, and enforce governance across cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments, according to Soffid. The real issue is not automation itself but whether identity governance can prove who had access, why, and for how long.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Soffid: “Identity Governance (IGA): Cómo automatizar revisiones de acceso y estar listo para auditoría”.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when access reviews are still handled manually in hybrid IGA programmes?
A: Manual reviews tend to miss permission drift because entitlements change faster than the certification cycle.
Q: Why do excessive permissions create audit and compliance risk even when no breach occurs?
A: Excessive permissions create risk because access that is never challenged is hard to justify later.
Q: What are the signs that access governance is failing in practice?
A: The clearest signs are slow remediation, repeated rubber stamp access reviews, and missed permissions outside traditional HR linked systems.
Practitioner guidance
- Standardise review cadences across identity populations Set one governed review model for cloud, on-premise, and hybrid entitlements so certification frequency and evidence quality do not vary by platform.
- Eliminate shared and generic identities from certification queues Separate shared or generic accounts from normal role-based reviews and force ownership assignment before they are eligible for recertification.
- Tie review outcomes to entitlement removal Require every review result to update the authoritative access record so approval, rejection, and revocation remain auditable end to end.
Bottom line: Automated access reviews are useful because they turn recurring certification into a repeatable governance control with better evidence.
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11/07/2026 2:07 pm
Automated access reviews are becoming a governance evidence layer, not just an efficiency feature. The value is not merely faster certification cycles. Their real role is to produce repeatable proof that access was reviewed, justified, and removed when no longer needed. For IAM and IGA teams, that shifts automation from back-office convenience to control evidence.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Nearly 60% of IT leaders cite restrictive cost and complexity as a weakness of legacy identity governance, according to the 2025 State of Identity Governance Report.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should IAM teams prove that automated reviews are actually improving control?
A: They should measure whether reviews reduce unresolved exceptions, shorten revocation time, and improve the quality of audit evidence. If certification simply moves faster but the same excess access remains, the programme is not improving control. Effective automation changes both the speed and the accuracy of entitlement decisions.
👉 Read our full editorial: Automated access reviews are reshaping audit-ready IGA programmes