How the University of Tennessee secured 40 departments by removing admin rights

A case study on reducing privileged access risk and improving compliance in a complex university environment.

Higher education IT teams often manage large, decentralized environments with limited staff and increasing security and compliance pressure.

At the University of Tennessee, a six-person IT governance and compliance team supports six campuses, two statewide institutes, and dozens of departments. Like many institutions, broad local administrator access was once the norm, creating challenges around risk, audits, and operational efficiency.

This case study explores how the team addressed privileged access at scale without disrupting users or overwhelming IT.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why standing admin rights created security and audit challenges
• How a small IT team approached privileged access control
• What improved visibility revealed about software and access usage
• The operational and compliance outcomes achieved

Download the full case study to learn how a higher-ed IT team strengthened access control while keeping users productive.