SaaS Access Sprawl Fuels Identity Governance Crisis in the AI Era

/ AI, DevOps, SaaS, Security
SaaS Access Sprawl Fuels Identity Governance Crisis in the AI Era

The News

CloudEagle.ai’s latest report reveals that 60% of enterprise SaaS and AI applications operate outside IT’s visibility, triggering a crisis in identity governance. With unsanctioned tools, excessive privileges, and legacy access controls proliferating, the report calls for urgent adoption of AI-powered identity governance solutions. 

Read the full report here.

Analysis

Enterprise software environments are becoming increasingly decentralized, with AI and SaaS adoption growing faster than IT can govern. Our findings show that the acceleration of composable application ecosystems, powered by self-service onboarding and shadow AI adoption, has outpaced the capabilities of traditional identity access management (IAM) solutions. As teams independently adopt tools and services outside IT’s purview, the visibility gap has widened. CloudEagle.ai’s report quantifies this shift: 60% of apps are now “invisible” to IT, undermining governance, compliance, and overall security posture.

Excessive Privileges and Manual Processes Compound Risk

The consequences of this visibility gap are becoming increasingly apparent. The report highlights that one in two employees have excessive privileges, and only 15% of enterprises use Just-In-Time (JIT) access provisioning. Manual onboarding and siloed deprovisioning create massive risk vectors; 48% of former employees still have access to enterprise apps. In today’s AI-powered workflows, where sensitive data is processed across decentralized platforms, the lack of granular, real-time access control introduces both compliance and insider threat vulnerabilities. This makes traditional IGA (Identity Governance and Administration) tools insufficient, especially when they rely on static role definitions and periodic audits.

Identity Access Management Has to Change

Historically, identity and access governance in SaaS environments has relied on centralized IT administration, coupled with quarterly audits and role-based access control (RBAC). This model assumes that apps and data remain behind enterprise firewalls or federated authentication services. However, in practice, business units often adopt SaaS tools independently, bypassing IT and creating unmanaged identity silos. Developers and ops teams, meanwhile, have often prioritized functionality over governance, leading to privilege creep and stale accounts. Without automation, enforcing least privilege policies or real-time revocation has remained aspirational at best.

Shifting Toward AI-Native Identity Governance

CloudEagle.ai’s findings suggest a tipping point: identity governance is becoming a front-line security function. As enterprise leaders acknowledge the business risk of access sprawl, IT teams are being empowered with the budget and authority to implement context-aware, zero-trust governance practices. For developers, this could mean future tooling will likely embed identity governance workflows into existing CI/CD pipelines and SaaS operations. This evolution will depend on the maturity of AI-based behavior analysis and cross-platform integrations. Developers should anticipate a future where least-privilege enforcement, JIT access, and real-time deprovisioning are no longer security goals; they’re embedded standards.

Looking Ahead

The move toward decentralized application ownership and AI-driven tooling will only continue to expand the identity governance surface area. We may see enterprise teams appoint Chief Identity Officers (CIDOs) and adopt continuous access intelligence as part of their broader security architecture. AI-powered platforms like CloudEagle.ai could play a pivotal role in shifting identity governance from static, reactive control to dynamic, contextual enforcement.

This new reality will likely influence how developers build and maintain secure integrations, embedding identity governance into the application lifecycle and ensuring that access decisions are informed by real-time context, not outdated roles.

Author

  • Paul Nashawaty

    Paul Nashawaty, Practice Leader and Lead Principal Analyst, specializes in application modernization across build, release and operations. With a wealth of expertise in digital transformation initiatives spanning front-end and back-end systems, he also possesses comprehensive knowledge of the underlying infrastructure ecosystem crucial for supporting modernization endeavors. With over 25 years of experience, Paul has a proven track record in implementing effective go-to-market strategies, including the identification of new market channels, the growth and cultivation of partner ecosystems, and the successful execution of strategic plans resulting in positive business outcomes for his clients.

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