Introduction
Most security programs treat identity hygiene as a one-time project, something to be cleaned up ahead of an audit, during a PAM rollout, or in response to a breach. But in modern hybrid enterprises, identities are created, modified, and deprecated every day. And without a system to keep up, hygiene decays fast.
That’s why SPHERE’s model stands out. It treats hygiene as a continuous process that’s embedded into the systems already governing identity: Privileged Access Management (PAM), Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), and Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs). In this fourth blog of our five-part technical series, we explore how SPHERE creates sustainable identity hygiene by aligning with the operational rhythms of enterprise IT.
The Problem: Hygiene is Fragile Without Integration
Even the best one-time identity cleanup efforts can unravel within months if they’re not integrated into the daily flow of IT operations. Consider a few common examples:
- A decommissioned service is reactivated because of an application rollback, without corresponding identity controls being updated.
- A new cloud subscription is spun up outside of governance workflows and accumulates unmanaged accounts.
- A developer creates a privileged account during testing, which never gets onboarded into PAM or registered in the CMDB.
- A third-party contractor is given temporary access, but the offboarding step is skipped.
Each of these situations introduces new identity risk, and none are unusual. In a large organization, they’re routine. The key to hygiene is not perfection – but rather, a system that notices when controls slip and automatically reacts.
SPHERE’s Approach: Integrate, Automate, and Sustain
SPHERE’s platform is architected for ongoing synchronization with the core systems that govern identity and asset data. By linking to PAM, IGA, and CMDB platforms, SPHERE ensures that account visibility, ownership, and risk posture are continuously updated, even as the enterprise evolves. Let’s break down how this works in technical detail.
- PAM Integration: Continuous Onboarding and Risk Management
SPHERE doesn’t replace PAM platforms like CyberArk, BeyondTrust, or Delinea, it feeds them. Its discovery and attribution capabilities identify high-risk accounts, assign ownership, and prepare them for onboarding. Once integrated, SPHERE enables:
- Dynamic account onboarding: Newly discovered accounts with ownership and risk metadata are pushed to PAM for vaulting and monitoring.
- Credential lifecycle management: Changes to ownership or system configuration can trigger credential rotation or reauthorization.
- Alerting on out-of-band access: If an account outside of PAM exhibits privileged behavior, SPHERE flags it for immediate review.
The result is a more responsive and intelligent PAM program, one that keeps up with reality, not just policy.
- IGA Integration: Embedded in the Identity Lifecycle
SPHERE also integrates with IGA systems such as SailPoint, Saviynt, and One Identity. These platforms handle provisioning, deprovisioning, and certification, but they need accurate context to do it well. That’s where SPHERE provides enrichment. Key integration use cases include:
- Owner validation during certification: SPHERE ensures that every account in an IGA review has a known and verified steward.
- Policy alignment for service accounts: Many IGA policies exclude or mishandle service accounts. SPHERE adds risk context and attribution, enabling proper inclusion in governance processes.
- Event-driven hygiene: When a user changes departments, leaves the company, or changes roles, SPHERE updates account linkages and flags orphaned or misaligned identities for review.
This ensures that governance decisions are made on clean, reliable data versus assumptions or guesswork.
- CMDB Synchronization: Tying Identity to Systems and Applications
Many organizations rely on platforms like ServiceNow to track their IT assets. But unless identity data is tied to those assets, the CMDB becomes blind to access risk.
SPHERE brings identity into CMDB workflows by:
- Linking accounts to systems and applications: Every identity is mapped to the system it resides on or interacts with.
- Enriching asset records with identity risk: SPHERE annotates CMDB entries with account count, privilege level, and ownership gaps.
- Driving hygiene from change management: When a system is added, modified, or decommissioned, associated accounts are reviewed for validity and risk.
This creates a full-circle view of identity and infrastructure, making it easier to drive accountability and enforce policy across departments.
Case Study: M&A Identity Hygiene in a Cloud-First Financial Institution
Consider a financial services organization that had just completed two acquisitions and was in the process of migrating workloads to Azure and AWS. The result was a fragmented identity environment with redundant accounts, overlapping access, and inconsistent governance.
SPHERE deployed alongside the customer’s CyberArk, SailPoint, and ServiceNow systems. Over the course of several weeks, SPHERE enabled:
- Continuous discovery of new and legacy accounts across cloud and on-prem
- Correlation of more than 90% of accounts to business or technical owners
- Real-time syncing of hygiene risk metrics into the CMDB, linked to business services
- Alerts and workflows to ensure new accounts were vetted and onboarded properly
As a result, the company transformed what had been a crisis-prone onboarding mess into a stable, repeatable, and auditable identity hygiene program, even in the midst of massive organizational change.
Identity Hygiene as a Program, not a Project
The most important insight from SPHERE’s model is that hygiene doesn’t end. It can’t. Every system provisioned, every app integrated, every business partner added introduces new identity risk. The goal isn’t to eliminate that risk entirely, but to monitor, control, and reduce it continuously. Here are a few principles SPHERE helps operationalize:
- Hygiene is part of change management. Every asset and account should pass through a hygiene gate before becoming active.
- Hygiene is measurable. Track orphaned accounts, high-risk privileges, and unreviewed identities over time.
- Hygiene is collaborative. Ownership and responsibility must be visible to technical and business teams alike.
Without automation and integration, these principles collapse under the weight of complexity. But with SPHERE, organizations can move from reactive firefighting to proactive identity control.
A Blueprint for the Future of Identity
In a digital enterprise, identity is the new perimeter. And like any security boundary, its integrity must be maintained, not occasionally, but constantly. SPHERE’s model, which involves deep integration with PAM, IGA, and CMDB, provides the backbone for sustainable identity hygiene. It’s not just about discovering accounts or assigning owners. It’s about making hygiene a natural consequence of how the enterprise operates. That’s the key to scaling securely in a cloud-first, hybrid, and high-velocity world.
In our final blog, we’ll examine how poor identity hygiene sabotages PAM programs and how SPHERE helps organizations prepare their data and processes to get PAM right the first time.
