3 Proven Strategies to Rein In Access Sprawl (Before It Wreaks Havoc)
Access sprawl is quietly exposing your organization to massive risk. Learn how to rein it in with three proven strategies—integrated access visibility, impact-based governance, and a culture of least privilege.
Over the past decade, the scale of identity access has exploded. Organizations are now juggling hundreds of SaaS tools, countless microservices, and a surge of non-human identities—all while relying on legacy identity systems built for a simpler, on-prem world.
The result? Access sprawl: excessive, outdated, and invisible permissions spreading across your tech stack like wildfire. Microsoft reports that 90% of identities use less than 5% of the permissions they’ve been granted. That’s a massive attack surface just waiting to be exploited.
So how do we fight back? Here are three strategies to take control:
- Get Complete Visibility with Integrated Access
- Prioritize What Matters with Impact-Based Governance
- Create a Culture of Least Privilege
If you want to learn more about how to manage access sprawl, or dive deeper into these helpful strategies, download our whitepaper “3 Strategies to Rein in Access Sprawl.”
1. Get Complete Visibility with Integrated Access
You can’t fix what you can’t see. Most organizations manage access across fragmented systems—with some apps governed centrally, others handled manually, and a whole chunk lost in Shadow IT.
To reverse sprawl, you need a platform that integrates with everything—from SaaS to legacy on-prem—and shows who has access to what. Bonus points if it supports AI-assisted integration building and legacy formats like CSV for older systems.
2. Prioritize What Matters with Impact-Based Governance
Let’s be honest—reviewing every permission one-by-one isn’t scalable. Instead, focus on the riskiest and most expensive access first:
- Admin permissions
- Violations of policy (like separation of duties)
- Access that’s not being used
- Outliers (people with permissions their peers don’t have)
This approach helps you take meaningful action, even if you can’t fix everything at once.
Attain rapid ROI and time-to-value with Lumos: Achieve immediate time-to-value with a solution that’s quick to deploy and easy to manage, reducing total cost of ownership. Launch in under 3 months at a third of the cost, compared to incumbents who take over 2 years to implement. Book a demo now to learn more.
3. Create a Culture of Least Privilege
Fixing current sprawl is great. But preventing future sprawl is better. Start by:
- Setting expiration dates for access
- Automatically removing dormant access
- Monitoring risky access continuously (not just quarterly)
With the right platform, access can be granted when needed—and removed when it’s not. No more forever access.
Lumos Helps You Rein in Access Sprawl
Lumos is the first autonomous identity platform that helps you automatically discover and manage access across your apps. With full integration capabilities, AI-driven insights, and automated access removal workflows, Lumos helps you:
✅ Secure your business
✅ Unlock employee productivity
✅ Boost profitability by cutting waste
To learn more about how to rein in access sprawl, download our whitepaper.
Access sprawl isn’t just a governance issue—it’s a security liability. Start cleaning it up today. Book a demo today to see Lumos in action.
