*Disclaimer: This article originally appeared on IDG Connect.
Over the past few years, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) have become three of the hottest topics in Information Technology circles. The growing demand for compliance with federal and state laws, as well as industry best practices, has necessitated a closer look at IT governance, as well as solutions that help to ensure an organization has invested their time and efforts wisely, through management and implementation of such technologies as access control, data protection, and identity provisioning and management. Proper design, application, and usage of these key technologies (and others) help to control necessary risk management activities and ease the efforts that are required to remediate or address areas where compliance is lacking.