Comprehensive identity governance isn’t just about provisioning and deprovisioning. It's about having a complete, verifiable picture of who has access to what, why they have it, and how they got it.
Yet for many organizations, this critical information is an afterthought that’s fragmented or doesn’t exist at all, making it nearly impossible to confidently demonstrate compliance and obtain clear visibility across identities and their access.
A modern approach to identity governance demands a single source of truth that provides all of this information in a unified platform.
Why it matters
Legacy identity platforms may show what a user can access today, but they often fail to explain how the access was granted, who approved it, and whether it’s still needed. In the context of a certification campaign, there’s a gap in the data that makes it impossible to show complete traceability of user access from the start to the end of the campaign.
Without this context, reviewers can’t confidently enforce least privilege, and organizations can’t prove to auditors that the right access was reviewed and revoked when necessary. The result: IT and GRC teams spend countless hours every quarter piecing together spreadsheets and reports to meet audit requests.
This manual work introduces human error, increases the time needed to perform compliance activities, and makes it harder to respond quickly to regulators or internal stakeholders.
How Okta solves it
Okta Identity Governance provides end-to-end visibility into identity data, giving you everything you need for compliance and governance reporting in one place:
- System log: A detailed history of all identity-related events that occur on the Okta Platform, including user sign-ins, policy evaluations, and administrator actions, so you can answer who did what and when in seconds.
- User App access report: See who can access each application and how the access was granted.
- Access request reporting: Track requests, approvals, and denials to demonstrate that access was granted with the appropriate control and oversight.
- Access certification reporting: Manage the lifecycle of access certification campaigns, including the outcome of approval or revocation decisions.
- Entitlement history: A chronological timeline of entitlement assignments and removals for any entitlement-enabled app, ensuring complete traceability.
Okta provides this data in a variety of formats to meet the needs of key stakeholders:
- APIs: Retrieve and integrate up to three years of governance data directly in your GRC tools.
- Reports: Out-of-the-box reports that can be filtered, customized, and exported in CSV or PDF formats (PDF reporting currently available in self service early access, GA expected by the end of 2025). PDF reports provide auditors with confidence that the data hasn’t been tampered with.
- Auditor Reporting Package: Automatically generated campaign reports designed to address common audit requirements the first time — reducing the back-and-forth with auditors and saving weeks or months of effort.
What makes this different (1 paragraph or bullets)
Unlike legacy IGA tools that rely on manual reporting, Okta’s unified identity platform delivers a modern, integrated approach to governance and compliance visibility:
- Audit-ready from day one: Standardized reports and auditor packages streamline compliance, reducing the time needed to correlate and integrate disparate data sources
- Real-time traceability: Full history of entitlements, access requests, and access certification campaign decisions — not just point-in-time snapshots.
- Extensible APIs: Pull compliance data into external systems or custom formats to meet unique business and regulatory needs.
With Okta’s unified identity platform, compliance shifts from a reactive scramble to a proactive, continuous process. Instead of chasing down fragmented data, organizations gain end-to-end visibility that empowers confident governance decisions and makes audits faster, easier, and less painful.
Already an Okta Identity Governance customer? Explore reporting templates and auditing tips in the Okta Identity Governance Product Hub.
New to Okta Identity Governance? Connect with one of our specialists to see how Okta Identity Governance can help you gain visibility and prove compliance without chasing down scattered data sources.
Next Up in the Series:
Why entitlement management needs a modern take
