Announcing File Access Manager 8.5: Enhanced Data Access Governance

Announcing File Access Manager 8.5: Enhanced Data Access Governance

We are pleased to announce the upcoming release of SailPoint File Access Manager 8.5, available at the end of January 2026. This release reinforces our commitment to providing organizations with a comprehensive on-premises data access governance solution designed to navigate a complex compliance landscape and address sophisticated data security challenges.

As enterprises contend with exponential data growth, stricter regulations, and persistent breach attempts, the need for a robust and efficient data access governance strategy is more critical than ever.

File Access Manager 8.5 builds upon this principle, introducing new capabilities to empower organizations to reduce attack surface, optimize performance, and strengthen security posture.

Here's an overview of what's new in File Access Manager 8.5.

Archive Stale Data: Reduce Attack Surface and Optimize Resources

Unused or "stale" data often represents a hidden vulnerability. Residing on company resources, this data is frequently forgotten during governance processes precisely because it is not actively used. This oversight creates a significant risk, as some of this data may be sensitive and exposed, increasing the likelihood of a security incident. Remediating stale data by archiving or deleting it reduces the organization's attack surface and can lower data hosting costs.

File Access Manager 8.5 introduces enhanced Stale Data detection capabilities to help organizations identify and manage clusters of unused data. This feature uses real-world activity-based usage data and file-level metadata to provide accurate insights.

Key Benefits:

• Improved Governance: Pinpoint areas where access is unnecessarily granted. The system aggregates information to surface clusters of stale data, with the lowest level of granularity being a business resource, effectively a folder.
• Reduced Attack Surface: Mitigate risks associated with forgotten sensitive data. Administrators can now get granular information about data that has not been accessed, down to the file level.
• Integrated Remediation: This functionality enables admins and IT teams to leverage existing solutions to archive, backup, or dispose of identified stale data based on File Access Manager's initial analysis.

Information about stale data is now available within the Resources views under the Stale Data tab, in the Stale Data and Resource Usage report, and in forensics views.

NTLM Authentication Proxy Support: Enhanced Security for Proxy Connections

In many enterprise environments, secure proxy configurations are a mandatory component of the network architecture. Prior to version 8.4 Service Pack 5, File Access Manager did not natively support proxy authentication capabilities, limiting configurations to a proxy URL and site whitelisting. This presented a challenge for environments requiring the system to authenticate itself against a proxy.

File Access Manager 8.5 resolves this with a new NTLM Authentication Proxy Tool. This tool has been added to support and configure the credentials used by the proxy if NTLM authentication is required. It allows the system to read and make use of User and Password values to authenticate itself, ensuring secure and seamless integration in complex network infrastructures.

Performance and Stability Upgrades

Continuous improvement of the user experience is a core focus. This release includes significant upgrades to the performance and stability of File Access Manager, ensuring a smoother and more reliable platform.

These enhancements include:

• Faster Task Completion: File Access Manager has modernized the infrastructure and optimized code to decrease the time it takes to complete governance tasks.
• Enhanced Robustness: The system now features improved retry mechanisms and more resilient failure handling to ensure operational continuity.
• Security First: Security is taken seriously, which is why upgrades on the RabbitMQ, SMTP, SQL and NHibernate library components have been included in this release.

Why File Access Manager 8.5 Matters

File Access Manager 8.5 enables organizations to improve their compliance posture, reduce their attack surface, and achieve greater operational efficiency. With these updates, your organization can:

• Strengthen compliance with data protection regulations.
• Reduce risk by identifying and remediating stale data.
• Improve performance and stability for a more reliable user experience.

To learn more about File Access Manager 8.5 and how it can help your organization, please visit the File Access Manager Compass Community.