2019 SailPoint Identity Insider Magazine - Magazine - Page 38
KELLY GRIZZLE
Sr. Architect, SailPoint
Your Data Sucks…
We Can Help
I’m sorry to have
TAKE
to be the one to
ON THE
tell you this, but
FUTURE
your data sucks…
and that’s a big
problem. Artificial
intelligence and machine learning will
transform identity governance over the
next few years and you need to get
ready so you can take advantage of it.
Here is the secret to effective machine
learning: machines start off dumb,
but they can get smarter with lots of
high-quality data. If your data is bad,
then the machine will just be artificially
unintelligent and never reach its full
potential.
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SAILPOINT IDENTIT Y INSIDER
Don’t worry, though, it happens to everyone. This
is a blame-free article, and I’m here to help. There
are three main types of data that can be used
for artificial intelligence in identity governance:
identity data, governance data, and activity data.
We’ll be focusing on the first two here.
Identity Data
Identity data includes personal information,
business information, and accounts/entitlements
on your systems. If you have a fairly mature identity
program, you may already have a lot of rich and
clean information here, such as:
•
•
Fully populated, consistent employee and
contractor attributes (job title, department,
location, etc.)
Common patterns of entitlements. This
does not have to be a full-blown role model,
but people that have similar functions in
your organization should likely have similar
access. In fact, machine learning can pick
up on these patterns to help in defining your
access model and mining potential roles.
If you’re not there yet, don’t despair. A good place
to start is just by putting your business knowledge
into your data. Work with your human resources
team to determine the defining characteristics of
your employees, and then get them added into
your HR application or corporate directory.