Identity Security in the Age of Accelerated App Growth: Why Automation is Becoming Essential for Business Success

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Manual Identity Management Strains Security

As organizations expand their use of cloud and SaaS applications, the strain on identity security is becoming increasingly evident. Manual processes and fragmented access controls are struggling to keep pace with the rapid growth of applications, creating significant operational and security challenges.

Limitations of Traditional Identity Management Tools

The limitations of traditional identity management tools are a major contributor to these challenges. While platforms like Okta, SailPoint, and Microsoft Entra are effective for managing access to applications that support modern identity standards, many enterprise apps still lack these capabilities. According to recent data, more than half of enterprise applications do not support SAML, OIDC, or SCIM, forcing IT teams to maintain manual processes for rotating passwords and provisioning accounts.

According to recent data, more than half of enterprise applications do not support SAML, OIDC, or SCIM, forcing IT teams to maintain manual processes for rotating passwords and provisioning accounts.

This not only slows down operations but also increases risk, as identity plays a central role in most cyberattacks today. Attackers are increasingly focusing on exploiting compromised credentials or abusing legitimate access, rather than relying on malware. In fact, a recent report by CrowdStrike found that 82% of detections are now malware-free, highlighting the importance of robust identity controls.

Challenges of Manual Identity Management

The challenges of manual identity management are particularly acute for organizations experiencing rapid growth. For example, Monday.com’s IT team struggled to keep up with identity management for hundreds of SaaS applications across global offices. Onboarding new employees and offboarding departing ones required manual intervention, resulting in delays and lost productivity. The company’s analysis revealed that they were spending thousands of hours each year managing access for disconnected applications.

In addition to the operational overhead, manual lifecycle management also created compliance challenges. As a public company subject to regulatory frameworks like SOX and ISO standards, Monday.com had to produce detailed audit evidence showing that access controls were enforced properly. Gathering this documentation manually added thousands more hours of work each year.

Addressing the Challenges

To address these challenges, security leaders are advocating for the extension of identity governance and administration (IGA) to disconnected applications. By automating employee provisioning and deprovisioning, enforcing consistent authentication controls, and reducing reliance on shared credentials, organizations can improve security and user experience. Automation can also help organizations recover significant operational costs and free security staff to focus on higher-value tasks.

The financial impact of automation can be substantial. By automating lifecycle management and simplifying compliance evidence collection, Monday.com recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in operational costs. As organizations adopt AI-driven tools, autonomous agents, and non-human identities, the scope of identity security programs will continue to expand, making automation an essential component of modern cybersecurity.

The lesson from Monday.com’s experience is clear: measuring the true cost of manual identity processes and automating wherever possible can improve security, productivity, and compliance. As attackers increasingly target credentials instead of malware, strong and scalable identity controls are becoming a critical pillar of modern cybersecurity.