Identity & Access Management

Our Identity & Access Management (IAM) Modernization Program is a coordinated series of projects organized around the program’s core pillars. Each pillar represents a set of targeted initiatives that, together, modernize how digital identities are created, managed, and secured across the university. Collectively, these projects strengthen the foundation of the university’s digital ecosystem moving beyond simple passwords to a cohesive, reliable framework that supports all core systems, protects institutional data, and enables teaching, learning, research, and operations at scale.

What is IAM?

Think of Identity & Access Management (IAM) as the digital nervous system of the university. It is the combination of policies, processes, and technologies that establish who a user is (Identity) and govern what they are permitted to do across systems and applications (Access).

In a university environment, IAM is inherently complex because individuals often hold multiple roles over time. For example, a student may also be an employee, a researcher, or an instructor. A modern IAM program manages these relationships dynamically and consistently across the enterprise, ensuring that access to systems such as learning platforms, financial systems, research resources, and administrative tools is accurate, timely, and secure. This capability is essential not only for security initiatives, but for the reliable operation, integration, and future evolution of all enterprise systems used at the university.

The Four Pillars of our IAM Modernization Program

1. The Frictionless Front Door (Access Management)

The intersection of security and everyday usability. This capability defines how people securely enter the university’s digital environment, balancing strong protection with minimal disruption. The focus is on making access simple for users while maintaining strong safeguards behind the scenes.

Core Initiatives: Condolidating our Single Sign-On (SSO) and adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) experience in EntraID; Enabling Windows Hello for Business (WHfB) on Villanova owned laptops.

What This Enables: Students, faculty, and staff authenticate once using secure methods such as biometrics or PINs and then move seamlessly between systems like Brightspace, email, and campus workstations. Fewer passwords reduce lockouts, improve productivity, and lower support demands.

2. Automated Lifecycle Governance (Identity Governance and Administration)

The intersection of efficiency and organizational collaboration. Identity is a journey. We are automating the path from "Applicant" to "Alumnus," ensuring access is granted instantly and revoked appropriately.

Core Initiatives: Automatic setup, update, and removal of accounts as people join the university, change roles, or leave; clear role-based access aligned to job and academic responsibilities; and easy self-service tools for managing groups and access without creating tickets for Technology Services.

What This Enables: Access is granted and removed consistently without manual effort. For example, when an individual declares a major, begins employment, or changes departments, the correct systems, mailing lists, and resources are updated automatically. Department leaders can manage access for their teams directly, reducing delays and dependence on University Technology Services.

3. The Secure Vault (Privileged Access Management)

The intersection of risk reduction, operational discipline, and compliance. This capability safeguards the most sensitive systems and data by tightly controlling elevated access.

Core Initiatives: Privileged Access Management (PAM); Just-in-Time (JIT) access elevation, session logging and auditing.

The Impact: Administrators no longer maintain permanent “all-access” accounts. Elevated privileges are granted only when required, for a specific task, and are fully auditable. This reduces exposure to cyber threats, limits the impact of mistakes, and strengthens regulatory compliance.

4. The Unified Source of Truth (Directory Services)

The foundational identity architecture for a modern, distributed university. This capability establishes a single, authoritative source of identity data that all enterprise systems rely on.

Core Initiatives: Cloud-first directory services (Entra ID); real-time synchronization with Human Resources, Finance, and Student Information Systems.

The Impact: Digital identities accurately and consistently reflect real-world status. Whether users are on campus, remote, or studying abroad, access remains reliable and consistent, while stakeholders across the university benefit from improved data quality, simpler integrations, and a stronger foundation for future systems.

Building the University’s Digital Foundation

Ultimately, the IAM Modernization Program delivers this foundation through these clearly defined pillars, each implemented through coordinated projects that address access, lifecycle governance, privileged security, and authoritative identity data. By replacing fragmented, manual, and outdated identity processes with these modern, pillar-based capabilities, the university is strengthening the core infrastructure that every enterprise system relies on. Together, the pillars reduce risk, simplify access, and remove inefficiencies that slow the institution today, while positioning the university to adopt new technologies, support global collaboration, and scale securely in the future thus ensuring security, user experience, and operational effectiveness advance together rather than in tension.