This KuppingerCole Executive View report looks at the current state and emerging trends of Access Governance. A technical review of the Oracle Access Governance is included.

1 Introduction

In today’s digital environment, organizations are managing vast amounts of data and operating across complex, often global, networks. Remote work, cloud services, and the increasing adoption of third-party services have led to a massive increase in access points within organizations. This shift has made traditional perimeter-based security models, which focused on protecting network boundaries, largely obsolete. As a result, the emphasis has moved towards identity-centric security, where access governance plays a central role.

Access Governance (AG) is an IAM focused risk management discipline that facilitates overall management of access rights across an organization’s IT environment. AG provides necessary (mostly self-service) tools for businesses to manage access entitlements, run reports, access certification campaigns, and Segregation of duties (SoD) checks. Access Governance Prescriptive Analystics refers to the layer above access governance that offers business-related insights to automate approvals, support effective decision making, remove rubber stamping, and potentially enhance compliant access governance. Data analytics and machine learning techniques enable pattern recognition to deliver valuable intelligence for process optimization, role design, automated reviews, and anomaly detection.

Access governance involves defining, managing, and enforcing policies on who can access what resources, under what conditions, and for what purpose. Effective access governance requires comprehensive identity and access management (IAM) systems that allow organizations to manage user identities, automate provisioning, enforce least-privilege access, and monitor access activity. The aim is to ensure that access to resources is secure, controlled, and continuously aligned with both business needs and regulatory requirements.

Many organizations today operate in hybrid environments that combine on-premises infrastructure with cloud-based systems as well as operating multiple cloud platforms. This mixed environment complicates access governance because each platform may have its own access control mechanisms, requiring interoperability and consistent policy enforcement across diverse systems. As organizations expand, so do their user populations, which now often include not only employees but also contractors, partners, and sometimes customers. Each of these groups requires specific access levels, making it essential to manage identities and permissions effectively. Furthermore, the rise of IoT devices has introduced a multitude of non-human identities that also require access governance.

The zero trust architecture and other compliance as well as regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA place stringent demands on organizations to manage access to sensitive data, enforce privacy controls, and maintain audit trails. Failure to meet these requirements can result in legal penalties, making compliance a major driver of access governance efforts. Meeting these demands requires continuous monitoring and reporting capabilities, which can be challenging without the right tools and processes.

Manual access management processes are not sustainable, especially in large organizations. Automated access provisioning, deprovisioning, and certification is essential for effective access governance. However, automation itself can be a challenge to implement effectively, particularly in organizations that have legacy systems or lack centralized identity management. Modern access governance solutions leverage advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to streamline access management processes and identify unusual or risky access patterns. These tools can automate routine tasks, such as provisioning and deprovisioning, password sync, periodic and event triggered certification campaigns, and can also provide valuable insights into access behaviour, helping organizations identify potential risks before they escalate.

Another key component is advanced role management, which extends beyond basic role assignments to include advanced functions such as role modelling, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) supported approaches can be leveraged to create and refine role structures that reflect the dynamic needs of the organization. This also includes managing the entire role lifecycle, from creation to deletion, as well as ensuring that ownership of roles is clearly defined and managed throughout the organization. The ability to support multi-tier role models allows for more granular and hierarchical role structures that align with complex organizational needs. Role mining is another critical function that can be enhanced by AI and machine learning. This enables the identification and optimization of roles based on user behavior patterns, making the governance model more efficient.

The landscape of Access Governance (AG) is at a critical juncture where evolution is not just necessary, but inevitable. At its core, AG has traditionally been implemented to address the challenges posed by applications that rely on static entitlements. There needs to be an approach to review entitlements that are entered into systems like Microsoft Active Directory or SAP ECC. These static entitlements create significant governance challenges because they require constant oversight to ensure compliance to the principle of least privilege, which is essential to avoid over-entitlement and enforce Segregation of Duties (SoD) controls. The need for these controls arises from the static nature of entitlements that, once granted, remain in place until they are manually reviewed or revoked.

In this KuppingerCole Executive View report, we take a look at the latest advancements in Oracle Access Governance and how these capabilities can affect real life use case scenarios.

2 Product Description

Founded in 1977, Oracle has its headquarters in Austin, Texas. Oracle Access Governance is their solution for managing secure access across hybrid environments. Key capabilities include automated provisioning, real-time risk analytics, and centralized visibility for compliance. It ensures secure and compliant access management.

Oracle Access Governance is a cloud-native IGA solution which runs in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Oracle Access Governance can also run alongside Oracle Identity Governance in a hybrid deployment model to provide identity analytics from the cloud for Oracle Identity Governance customers. Oracle Access Governance offers a comprehensive solution for managing and securing access across cloud and on-premises environments. Integrated with Oracle’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) suite, it automates provisioning and deprovisioning, ensuring efficient access control and reducing unauthorized access risks.

Figure 1: Oracle Access Governance (Source: Oracle)

Oracle Access Governance is centered on five key principles with ease of use being a shared theme across all areas:

Offering visibility into enterprise-wide access with automated orchestrations
Analytics-driven identity access with policy reviews and micro-certifications with no code workflows
Reducing risks through access controls
Audit compliance through reporting
Low code solutions across infrastructure, applications, and services.

It serves as an integrated solution for identity orchestration, user provisioning, access review, access control, compliance, and multi cloud governance. It can detect and remediate high-risk privileges by enforcing internal access audit policies to identify orphaned accounts, unauthorized access, and privileges. This helps improve compliance with regulatory requirements.

Oracle developed a variant of Access Governance tailored for Infrastructure-as-a-Service, initially launching Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) differs from other Oracle access governance solutions on providing cloud-native capabilities, integrating with OCI resources and services, scalable identity and access governance across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.

This solution tailored for Infrastructre-as-a-Service allows access governance within OCI through a single instance, offering customers insights into access permissions, certification processes, and provisioning. OCI highlights cloud-first agility, provisioning, automated policy enforcement, real-time monitoring, and provisioning for dynamic cloud environments. This makes it more adaptable for cloud deployments. Oracle suggests this functionality will expand to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, enabling a unified, cross-cloud governance experience. By centralizing governance across multiple cloud providers, Oracle customers can manage and certify access across their cloud environments efficiently. This solution supports understanding “who has access to what” and managing permissions specific to each cloud provider. As Oracle extends this to other cloud platforms, the solution promises consistent cloud identity governance and access controls. This approach addresses a critical challenge for enterprises working to maintain compliance across multiple cloud services, by offering a centralized policy management and governance visibility.

Oracle Access Governance has introduced deep integrations to address the unique needs of different industry use cases on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Fusion Applications, Oracle Health EHR, Oracle Database 23ai, Oracle Autonomous Database, mySQL, and Netsuite . For example, in Oracle Fusion Applications, role and data security contexts are deeply integrated, allowing users to request roles with specific parameters (e.g., department, country, etc) which would automatically be adapted when users join or move or leave the company. Additionally seamless integration with Oracle’s Risk Management Cloud Service (RMC), allows enabling SOD rule conisiderations before access controls are provisioned and hence reducing the need for manual SOD violation analysis.

2.1 AI-Driven Automation

Oracle Access Governance enhances analytics-driven capabilities to address certification fatigue from repetitive access reviews. Traditional certifications for compliance are supported, but Oracle also now supports micro-certifications, triggered by attribute-based or anniversary-based events, to reduce time and costs associated with reviews. Beyond access reviews, Oracle offers access policy reviews across various connected systems, such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This feature helps organizations understand complex access paths and detect overlapping access policies. Backed by machine learning, these analytics provide clear interpretations of user access.

Automation is the next component for further streamlining governance processes. Oracle Access Governance emphasizes automation with a flexible, self-service approach, recognizing that "one size does not fit all." It supports attribute-based and policy-based access control, along with role-based access control (RBAC). Oracle has launched OnboardCopilot, an application onboarding automation tool that can automatically generate meaningful names for the access bundles along with easy to understand descriptions. In addition, Oracle is investing in advanced capabilities like AI/ML-driven role mining, access bundles and identity collections, policy creations and simulations. They are continuously updating these new constructs to enhance access management.

Its Machine Learning led analytics monitoring provides real-time risk assessment to identify suspicious activities. It is designed to meet compliance standards like GDPR and HIPAA, Oracle Access Governance includes tools for audit trails, access certifications, and compliance reporting. This solution helps organizations maintain secure, compliant access while supporting a Zero Trust security approach within Oracle’s broader ecosystem.

2.2 Identity Orchestration

Another aspect that expands the functionalities of automation is identity orchestration. Oracle Access Governance supports this capability by managing complex user identity workflows across diverse applications and systems with zero code and nested workflows. In many organizations, user identities span multiple platforms—cloud, on-premises, and hybrid—making it challenging to ensure seamless, secure, and consistent access. Oracle suggests its identity orchestration capabilities allow organizations to automate and synchronize identity lifecycle management, covering the entire process from Day 0 user onboarding, to Day N synchronization to access revocation.

With Oracle’s solution, identity orchestration provides efficient, automated provisioning and deprovisioning processes that adapt to role changes. This reduces the risk of excessive permissions. This capability ensures that user identities are governed consistently across all environments, eliminating the need for manual adjustments and lowering the potential for human error. Oracle Access Governance can integrate with various third-party applications, streamlining workflows and creating a unified approach to identity management across an organization’s technology stack.

Oracle Access Governance’s real-time monitoring and policy enforcement also support identity orchestration by dynamically adjusting access based on risk assessments or behavioural patterns. This adaptive approach supports a Zero Trust model, where access is continually evaluated and verified. Overall, Oracle’s identity orchestration capabilities can help organizations achieve secure, responsive identity governance, reducing administrative tasks while enhancing security and compliance in complex digital ecosystems.

2.3 Segregation of Duties (SoD) Enforcement

Oracle Access Governance provides capabilities for enforcing segregation of duties (SoD), a critical control in preventing fraud and mitigating insider threats. In many organizations, especially in regulated industries like finance and healthcare, SoD enforcement is essential to ensure that no single user has unchecked access to critical functions to avoid unauthorized access threats. Oracle's solution allows organizations to define and enforce SoD policies, automating the identification and remediation of potential conflicts in user access privileges. Furthermore, the solution incorporates Risk Management Cloud Service (RMC) to enforce segregation of duties (SoD) out-of-the-box for Oracle Fusion ERP, eliminating the need for manual configuration.

Through SoD enforcement, Oracle Access Governance can continuously monitor user roles and permissions to identify conflicting access rights. When potential SoD conflicts are detected, the system can trigger alerts for review, requiring additional approvals before the access is granted. This process significantly reduces the risk of fraudulent transactions by maintaining strict control over access combinations.

Moreover, Oracle Access Governance’s reporting and auditing features enable organizations to conduct regular access reviews, providing clear visibility into SoD compliance across the enterprise. These capabilities make it easier to demonstrate compliance with regulatory standards and reinforce internal controls that protect critical business.

2.4 Centralized Governance Visibility

Oracle Access Governance offers centralized visibility across an organization’s access management landscape, which is essential for maintaining security and compliance in complex environments. By providing a single, consolidated who has access to what view of access rights, user roles, and policy adherence, Oracle can enable organizations to monitor and manage access activities efficiently across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid systems. This centralization reduces the complexity often associated with fragmented access data and different systems, allowing security teams to spot inconsistencies or unusual access patterns more easily.

One key capability is the dashboard, which delivers real-time insights into access trends, policy compliance, and potential security risks. Oracle have also recently introduced a next-gen access dashboard, enhancing the existing top-down and bottom-up views. This new dashboard can enhance how users navigate and view access data by offering a more dynamic experience. With Oracle’s AI-driven analytics, organizations can quickly identify high-risk users or anomalous access behaviours, enabling swift action to prevent potential breaches. Additionally, the system simplifies compliance reporting by consolidating audit trails and access certifications in one location, making it easier to display regulatory compliance and respond to audit requests.

Centralized governance visibility also supports streamlined role management and policy enforcement. By managing user roles and permissions from a single platform, Oracle Access Governance can help organizations ensure that access privileges align with user responsibilities, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access and supporting a secure, compliant access framework.

Oracle Access Governance offers out-of-the-box reports for compliance but has also developed a capability to publish audit events within access governance. These events are streamed to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) events and OCI streaming service, which then forwards them to Kafka. This setup allows organizations to plugin the data into existing business analytics solution they have and perform big data analytics on governance activities for deeper compliance insights.

3 Strengths and Challenges

Oracle Access Governance continues to reinforce its identity and access management capabilities. With the ability to conduct micro-certifications instead of traditional certifications every six months, Oracle suggests their platform is well placed for streamlining governance procedures. Oracle is adopting a "focused sales play" approach, developing specialized Access Governance solutions tailored to various industries and products. In addition to OCI and Fusion Applications, Oracle plans targeted governance offerings for SAP, Microsoft, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors. This strategy aims to show the value of Access Governance for industry-specific requirements, even though the service operates as a unified cloud solution. Oracle's goal is to provide comprehensive access governance support across different products and cloud environments, highlighting the flexibility and scalability of its approach to meet diverse customer needs.

By leveraging cloud infrastructure, Oracle Access Governance is on track to support operations as well as facilitating integration with applications such as Cerner for auditing and compliance purposes. They plan monthly release cycle to their access governance platform with the latest features and enhancements. Oracle’s strategy is about providing visibility into access permissions across the enterprise using their dashboards which can be tailored based on requirements of business users. Furthermore, Oracle suggests this platform can be useful for CISOs by offering top-down or bottom-up consolidated views of access permissions across the enterprise.

Oracle Access Governance is now available across 40 commercial regions within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and is expanding to include government cloud regions. The goal is to make it accessible across all OCI regions, both commercial and government, as part of ongoing investment in global coverage.

Strengths

Integrates with other Oracle products like Fusion Applications, RMC, Oracle Health EHR, and third-party platforms like Microsoft Active Directory and Azure EntraID offering a unified approach to identity and access management.

Supports governance across multiple cloud platforms (OCI today and in near future also extending this support to AWS, Azure, GCP), from a single AG instance, making it easier for organizations with multi-cloud environments.

Leverages machine learning and AI to enhance decision-making, role mining, access bundles, and provide actionable insights into user access and permissions.

Automated access reviews and granting of entitlements.

Reporting and dashboarding tool is mature, advanced and supports all types of out-of-the-box reports for all major compliance frameworks.

Powerful access governance capabilities that go through various compliance workflows.

Supports wide variety of authenticators for user and admin self-service.

Supports all major out-of-the-box provisioning connectors for SaaS and on-premises systems.

Codeless workflow engine is easy to use and supports multistage approval workflows.

Challenges

Support for some major SDKs is missing but can be provided through leveraging their REST API.

Lacks a go-to market approach for acquiring new customers and main customers are Oracle enterprise customers.

Integrating with legacy on-premises systems can be challenging

Managing access across multiple cloud platforms can be challenging as each provider has bespoke structures

4 Related Research

5 Copyright

© 2025 KuppingerCole Analysts AG. All rights reserved. Reproducing or distributing this publication in any form is prohibited without prior written permission. The conclusions, recommendations, and predictions in this document reflect KuppingerCole's initial views. As we gather more information and conduct deeper analysis, the positions presented here may undergo refinements or significant changes. KuppingerCole disclaims all warranties regarding the completeness, accuracy, and adequacy of this information. Although KuppingerCole research documents may discuss legal issues related to information security and technology, we do not provide legal services or advice, and our publications should not be used as such. KuppingerCole assumes no liability for errors or inadequacies in the information contained in this document. Any expressed opinion may change without notice. All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Their use does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

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