What are the main components of IAM?

IAM is usually delivered through five connected disciplines: Workforce IAM (employee access), Customer IAM (external user access), Identity Governance and Administration (governing and proving access), Privileged Access Management (securing high-risk admin accounts), and Non-Human Identity security (service accounts, secrets and AI agents).

What is the difference between IAM, IGA and PAM?

IAM is the overall discipline of managing access. IGA (Identity Governance and Administration) governs who has access to what and proves it for audit. PAM (Privileged Access Management) is a specialised area that secures the high-risk privileged and administrator accounts whose misuse would do the most damage.

What are non-human identities (NHIs)?

Non-human identities are service accounts, secrets, machine identities and AI agents that access systems without a person directly logging in. They often outnumber human users and frequently go unmanaged, making them a growing security risk as organisations adopt automation and AI agents.

Identity & Access Management

A Beginner's Guide to Identity and Access Management

Q: What is the difference between authentication and authorisation?

Authentication confirms who a user is, using methods like single sign-on, MFA and passkeys. Authorisation determines what that authenticated user is allowed to do, which systems and data they can reach, under what conditions, and for how long. Authentication is the front door; authorisation contains the risk once inside.

Q: Why is IAM important?

Around 80% of cyberattacks use identity-based methods, and compromised credentials remain a leading breach vector. Cloud, automation and AI have made access control a board-level issue. Strong IAM reduces breach risk, supports compliance, and lets the business move faster with controlled, auditable access.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the foundation for controlling who has access to your organisation’s systems, data, and digital resources - and ensuring that access is appropriate at all times.

Download our guide and start your IAM journey

IAM controls who - and what - can access your systems and data, and makes sure that access stays appropriate over time.
It spans five connected disciplines: Workforce IAM, Customer IAM, Identity Governance & Administration, Privileged Access Management, and Non-Human Identity security.
Authentication confirms who you are; authorisation decides what you can do. Authorisation is where the real risk is contained.
~80% of cyberattacks now use identity-based methods - identity has become the control plane of the modern business.
Run as a managed service, IAM delivers audit-ready evidence and reduced risk without building a full internal team.

What is Identity and Access Management (IAM)?

Identity and Access Management is the framework of policies, processes, and technologies that controls who has access to an organisation’s systems, data, and digital resources, and ensures that access is appropriate at all times.

It answers four questions every organisation must be able to evidence: who has access, why they have it, for how long, and whether you can prove it. As cloud adoption, regulatory pressure, and AI-driven automation accelerate, controlling who, and what, has access is no longer optional. Modern IAM brings governance, privileged control, and Non-Human Identity oversight together into a single, measurable capability.

What is the difference between authentication and authorisation?

Authentication confirms who a user is; authorisation determines what that authenticated user is allowed to do. Authentication is the front door: Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and passkeys all prove identity. Authorisation is what happens next: which systems, data, and actions that identity can reach, under what conditions, and for how long. Both matter, but once a user is through the door, authorisation is what contains risk. We explore this in depth in our article on the data problem hiding in authorisation.

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Why is identity now a strategic priority?

Every digital initiative depends on identity, which has turned access control into a board-level issue. Cloud, automation, and AI mean more users, devices, services, and agents need access to more systems than ever before. Without strong governance, risk multiplies, and AI accelerates the impact. Identity Security puts guardrails in place so that access is controlled, auditable, and aligned to business goals.

The numbers make the case:

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80 %

of cyberattacks use identity-based methods (Tenfold Security).

22 %

of compromised credentials remain a leading breach vector (Enzoic).

1.8 billion

credentials stolen in the first half of 2025 (Daily Security Review).

Workforce Identity and Access ManagementWIAM

WIAM secures how employees and internal users access applications, devices, and systems across hybrid environments. It covers the joiner, mover, and leaver lifecycle: provisioning access on day one, adjusting it when people change role, and removing it promptly when they leave, alongside SSO and MFA.

Customer Identity and Access ManagementCIAM

CIAM manages identity for external users, balancing strong security with a low-friction sign-up and login experience. It handles registration, consent, scale, and convenience for customers and partners outside the organisation.

Identity Governance and AdministrationIGA

IGA governs who has access to what, why they have it, and whether it is still appropriate, and produces the evidence to prove it. It covers access requests and approvals, access certifications and reviews, role management, and segregation of duties. IGA is where most audit and compliance requirements are satisfied.

Privileged Access ManagementPAM

PAM secures the high-risk accounts, such as administrator, root, and shared credentials, whose misuse would do the most damage. It controls, vaults, monitors, and time-limits privileged access, supporting goals such as least privilege and zero standing privilege.

Non-Human Identities and AI agentsNHI

Non-human identities, including service accounts, secrets, machine identities, and AI agents, now often outnumber human users and frequently go unmanaged. As organisations adopt automation and AI agents, governing what these identities can do becomes as important as governing people.

How do AI and Non-Human Identities change the access landscape?

AI agents and automated workloads act on behalf of users and make decisions at machine speed, which means access decisions must now extend to identities that are not people. Knowing that a human owns an AI agent creates accountability, but it does not define what that agent should be allowed to do. The most effective approach lets non-human identities inherit access boundaries from trusted human identity data, but that only works if the underlying data is clean. Faster automation on poor data simply accelerates poor decisions.

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Where do governance gaps typically emerge?

Governance gaps appear wherever access is granted faster than it is reviewed or removed. The common causes are incomplete offboarding, where leavers keep access; access creep, as people accumulate entitlements when they change roles; orphaned and shared accounts with no clear owner; unmanaged service accounts and secrets; excessive standing privilege; and gaps in MFA coverage. Each is a foothold for an attacker and a finding for an auditor. Regular access reviews, a clean joiner, mover, and leaver process, and visibility across non-human identities close most of them.

What does good look like when IAM is run as a Managed Service?

Run well, IAM is a continuously operated capability rather than a one-off project, with the right controls, monitoring, reporting, and expertise applied consistently over time. A managed service gives organisations IAM outcomes, including secured privileged access, governed entitlements, audit-ready evidence, and managed non-human identities, without having to build and staff a full internal function. It combines the technology with specialist configuration, governance, integrations, reporting, and ongoing operational support. Explore Intragen’s Managed Services.

What is IAM in simple terms?

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is how an organisation makes sure the right people - and the right systems - can access the right resources at the right time. It controls who can sign in, what they can access, and when that access is granted or removed, improving both security and productivity.

What is the difference between IAM and PAM?

IAM manages access for all users across an organisation, making sure employees, contractors, partners, and applications have the permissions they need to do their jobs. Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a specialised area of IAM that protects high-risk accounts with elevated permissions, such as administrator, root, or service accounts. It adds controls like credential vaulting, session monitoring, and just-in-time access to reduce the risk of misuse or compromise. Put simply, IAM manages access for everyone, while PAM adds extra protection for your most powerful accounts.

What is the difference between IAM And Identity Security?

IAM focuses on managing digital identities and controlling access to applications, systems, and data, including authentication, user provisioning, and access management. Identity Security is broader: it builds on IAM by protecting those identities from attack over time. It adds capabilities such as identity threat detection and response (ITDR), access governance, privileged access protection, risk-based authentication, and continuous monitoring. In short, IAM manages access, while Identity Security protects identities throughout their lifecycle.

Why is IAM important for compliance?

Many regulations and security frameworks require organisations to control and monitor access to sensitive data and systems. In Europe these include GDPR, NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS. IAM helps organisations meet these requirements by enforcing access policies, applying the principle of least privilege, keeping audit logs, and making sure access is granted, reviewed, and removed appropriately. This reduces security risk and makes compliance audits faster and easier.

How do non-human identities affect IAM?

Non-human identities include service accounts, APIs, applications, bots, workloads, containers, and machine identities that authenticate and access systems without any human involvement. As organisations adopt cloud services, automation, and AI, these identities often outnumber human users. Left unmanaged, they accumulate excessive permissions, unused credentials, and hidden risk. Modern IAM discovers, manages, monitors, and secures non-human identities alongside human users, keeping access controls consistent and reducing the attack surface.

How Intragen helps

Intragen is an Identity and Access Management specialist, helping organisations take control of who - and what - has access to critical systems and data. With deep expertise across Privileged Access Management, Non-Human Identities, and Identity Governance and Administration, we help reduce risk, strengthen compliance, and build scalable identity foundations that support growth.

We act as a trusted advisor, guiding organisations through complex identity challenges with clarity, independence, and measurable outcomes - so that identity becomes a business enabler rather than a barrier.

Not sure where to go next? Book an IAM Maturity Assessment Download the Beginner's Guide to IAM (PDF)