Everything You Need to Know

Unified visibility across your entire identity infrastructure – from human users to the 82x more machine identities in your environment.

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The Challenge: Machine identities vastly outnumber humans with critical visibility gaps
The Solution: Unified visibility layer across all identity systems
How It Works: Integrates AD, PAM, IGA, cloud, and SaaS into single pane of glass
Who Needs It: Organizations with mature IAM seeking comprehensive visibility
Key Outcome: Continuous discovery, risk prioritization, and automated remediation

• Machine identities outnumber humans 82-to-1
• 42% of organizations can’t count orphaned accounts
• 30% lack processes to locate orphaned accounts
• 25%+ report having 20+ active orphaned accounts
• Average enterprise manages 250,000 machine identities per human user

Identity Visibility and Intelligence Platform (IVIP) is an emerging cybersecurity technology that provides organizations with unified visibility and intelligence across their entire identity infrastructure. As Gartner identified in their latest Hype Cycle, IVIP represents a critical new layer in the identity stack.

Unlike traditional IAM tools that operate within specific systems or workflows—such as provisioning, vaulting, or authentication—IVIPs create a unified intelligence layer across your entire identity ecosystem. They connect disparate identity data from Active Directory, IGA platforms, PAM solutions, SaaS applications, cloud environments, and infrastructure into a coherent, actionable view.

With this unified perspective, IVIPs deliver:

• Continuous Identity Insight: Beyond basic access information to understand what that access means, who’s accountable, and how it aligns with policy.
• Cross-System Correlation: Connecting accounts, roles, permissions, and usage patterns across cloud and on-premises environments.
• Actionable Intelligence: Surfacing hidden risks like orphaned accounts, toxic access combinations, or stale privileges that evade detection in siloed tools.

Importantly, IVIPs complement rather than replace IAM systems. They provide the context, visibility, and intelligence that enables existing tools to work effectively at enterprise scale.

Most organizations have invested substantially in AM, IGA, and PAM tools. While these systems excel at enforcing identity policies, provisioning access, managing entitlements, and securing privileged credentials, enforcement represents only part of the identity security equation.

As Gartner observes: “Even with mature IGA, AM and PAM solutions, many organizations struggle to achieve full visibility (‘single pane of glass’) in a reasonable timeline and at sustainable cost. The typical organization is still only partly integrated for IAM needs after years of investment and effort.”

Though the legacy tools are good at enforcing policy, enforcement is only part of the equation.

• Siloed Data Islands: Identity information scattered across AD, cloud platforms, SaaS apps, HR systems, and infrastructure creates fragmented visibility where each tool sees only a slice of the whole picture.
• Missing Business Context: IAM tools struggle with critical questions like “Who actually owns this account?” or “What’s the real-world risk of this access combination?” Without visibility into usage patterns, relationships, and risk posture, security decisions rely on incomplete information.
• Persistent Blind Spots: Orphaned accounts, excessive privileges, and unvaulted service accounts slip through not because IAM tools are inadequate, but because they lack the cross-system visibility to detect them (see our Key Identity Statistics for the scope of this challenge).

This visibility gap explains why IVIP has emerged as essential infrastructure. IVIPs serve as the connective tissue that unifies fragmented identity data, providing security teams the comprehensive visibility and context needed for intelligent, targeted action.

Now that we understand the gaps in traditional IAM, let’s explore how Identity Visibility and Intelligence Platforms address these challenges through transformative capabilities that fundamentally change how organizations manage identity risk.

Integrated Visibility Across Identity Systems and Infrastructure
IVIP consolidates identity data from AD, PAM, IGA, cloud platforms, and SaaS and on-prem infrastructure into a unified operational view. This shared visibility accelerates decision-making for security, IAM, and compliance teams while eliminating the need to manually correlate data across multiple tools.

Continuous Discovery Across All Identity Types
Unlike periodic audits, IVIP continuously discovers and tracks all identities both human and non-human across directories, cloud platforms, and infrastructure. This includes service accounts, ephemeral cloud roles, shared credentials, and other frequently overlooked identity types that create security gaps.

Real-Time Ownership, Privilege, and Risk Intelligence
IVIP automatically maps each identity to its owner, documents access permissions, and calculates associated risk scores. This intelligence enables teams to focus remediation efforts on the highest-risk identities rather than treating all accounts with equal priority, dramatically improving security efficiency.

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When properly implemented, Identity Visibility and Intelligence Platforms support critical security initiatives by providing the continuous insight and context necessary for confident decision-making.

Zero Trust Architecture Enablement
IVIP forms the foundation for Zero Trust by providing continuous visibility into identity relationships across all systems. It enables continous posture verification before granting access and supports continuous validation based on dynamic risk assessment—essential elements of true Zero Trust implementation.

Audit and Compliance Acceleration
By unifying identity data across disparate systems, IVIP transforms audit preparation from a multi-week scramble into an automated process. Auditors and compliance teams gain instant access to account status, ownership documentation, and access history, dramatically reducing manual effort while improving accuracy.

Orphaned and Overprivileged Account Remediation
IVIP automatically identifies accounts lacking clear ownership, showing no access to live assets or possessing excessive permissions. Security teams can quickly remediate these risks with confidence, knowing they have complete visibility rather than relying on incomplete inventories or error-prone manual reviews.

Understanding the distinction between IVIP and traditional IAM helps organizations recognize why both are necessary for comprehensive identity security.

 
The key insight: IAM tools excel at policy enforcement within their domains, while IVIP provides the cross-domain visibility and intelligence needed to make those policies effective at scale.

At SPHERE, we recognized the identity visibility crisis years before IVIP emerged. SPHEREboard represents our answer to the critical gaps that traditional IAM tools inevitably leave behind.

Built Specifically for the Visibility Gap
SPHEREboard applies advanced identity intelligence to unify fragmented data across AD, on-prem infrastructure, PAM, cloud, and unstructured environments. Our platform surfaces the hidden risks that point solutions miss, providing the comprehensive view that modern security demands.

Focused on Actionable Outcomes, Not Just Insights
Discovery without action doesn’t reduce risk. SPHEREboard goes beyond visibility to map ownership, prioritize risks using AI-driven analysis, and automate remediation workflows. This enables security teams to move from reactive firefighting to proactive identity governance.

Proven in the Most Demanding Environments
Global banks, healthcare systems, and critical infrastructure providers trust SPHEREboard to secure their identity infrastructure. Our platform has demonstrated measurable risk reduction in environments where identity security isn’t just important—it’s existential.

We believe visibility only matters when it drives better outcomes. That’s why SPHEREboard focuses on what security teams actually need: clarity, ownership accountability, and automated control remediation.

As Gartner says, “For organizations lagging in required levels of visibility and data integration with existing IAM toolsets, explore and evaluate Identity Visibility and Intelligence Platform vendors for potential value as an addition to your identity fabric.”

What exactly is an Identity Visibility and Intelligence Platform?
An IVIP is a technology layer that provides unified visibility across all identity systems, using AI-enabled analytics to surface risks and enable rapid improvements to IAM controls. Unlike enforcement-focused IAM tools, IVIPs reveal the complete identity picture across your enterprise.

How does IVIP work?
IVIP platforms integrate with existing identity systems (AD, on-prem infrastructure, PAM, IGA, cloud platforms, SaaS apps) to continuously collect and correlate identity data. They then apply analytics to identify risks, map ownership, and provide actionable intelligence through a single interface.

What’s the difference between IVIP and IAM?
IAM tools enforce identity policies within specific domains (like access provisioning or privilege management). IVIP provides the visibility layer across all these tools, showing how identities actually behave across your entire environment and identifying risks that individual tools miss.

Who needs IVIP technology?
Organizations managing over 1,000 identities across multiple systems typically benefit from IVIP. It’s especially critical for enterprises with mature IAM programs still experiencing visibility gaps, compliance challenges, or struggling with machine identity proliferation.

How serious is the machine identity problem?
Research shows machine identities now outnumber humans 82-to-1, with nearly half possessing sensitive or privileged access. This explosive growth, combined with traditional IAM limitations, creates significant security blind spots.

How long does IVIP implementation take?
Unlike traditional IAM projects that can take years, IVIP platforms typically deliver initial visibility within days and comprehensive integration within weeks. This rapid timeline is one of IVIP’s key advantages over traditional approaches.

Does IVIP replace existing IAM investments?
No. IVIP augments existing IAM systems by providing the visibility and intelligence layer they need to function effectively. Think of IVIP as the connective tissue that makes your IAM investments work better together.

What should organizations look for in an IVIP solution?
Key evaluation criteria include:

• Breadth of system integration capabilities
• Continuous discovery and monitoring
• AI-driven risk analysis and prioritization
• Automated remediation workflows
• Scalability for enterprise environments
• Flexible deployment options (cloud, on-premises, hybrid)

How does IVIP support Zero Trust initiatives?
IVIP provides the continuous visibility, current risk assessment, and identity verification capabilities that Zero Trust requires. It enables organizations to move from implicit trust to continuous verification based on comprehensive identity intelligence.

What ROI can organizations expect from IVIP?
Organizations typically see ROI through reduced audit preparation time (50-70% reduction), faster incident response (60% improvement), decreased orphaned accounts (80%+ reduction), and avoided breach costs through proactive risk identification.

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Related IVIP Resources

• Identity Hygiene and PAM Success Guide
• Modern Identity Security with AI ⦁ &⦁ Automation
• From Credential Chaos to Boardroom Mandate
• See SPHEREboard IVIP Platform in Action