Google Cloud IAP alternatives: what gaps do IAM teams need to close?

TL;DR: Google Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy centralizes access for GCP resources and HTTPS apps, but StrongDM’s comparison shows it can be a poor fit for multi-cloud infrastructure, SSH, RDP, databases, and Kubernetes because it needs extra configuration, has limited third-party integration, and does not protect activity within a project. For IAM teams, the issue is not access centralization alone but whether the control plane can govern credentials, sessions, and auditability across mixed environments.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by StrongDM: Access alternatives to Google Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)

By the numbers:

• Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts.
• 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface.
• Only 44% of organisations have implemented any policies to manage their AI agents, despite 92% agreeing that governing AI agents is critical to enterprise security.

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams choose between Google Cloud IAP and a privileged access platform?

A: Choose based on what you need to govern, not on authentication alone.

Q: Why does access control become harder in multi-cloud environments?

A: Multi-cloud environments split identity, protocol, and audit responsibility across different control planes.

Q: What breaks when a gateway controls login but not in-session activity?

A: The organisation can approve entry without governing what happens after authentication.

Practitioner guidance

• Define the access boundary explicitly Document which resources are covered by your current gateway model and which still require separate control for databases, servers, Kubernetes, SSH, and RDP.
• Require hidden credentials for privileged paths For administrative access, prefer mediated access patterns where users never handle the underlying secret.
• Make session evidence part of approval criteria Do not count authentication as governance unless you can also review commands, queries, and resource actions after entry.

What's in the full article

StrongDM's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• Side-by-side feature and limitation notes for Google Cloud IAP, StrongDM, Okta ASA, and Teleport
• Deployment considerations such as client requirements, audit log handling, and per-server maintenance overhead
• Resource-by-resource guidance for SSH, RDP, databases, servers, and Kubernetes access
• Pricing and packaging notes that matter when evaluating implementation trade-offs

👉 Read StrongDM's comparison of Google Cloud IAP alternatives →

Google Cloud IAP alternatives: what gaps do IAM teams need to close?

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