Why IAM is an Indispensable Tool?

Every business profoundly relies on technology to thrive and IAM is one such aspect of IT that cannot be overlooked. In this blog, we will discuss IAM attributes and explore its significance.

What is IAM?

Identity and access management (IAM) is a technology, designed to secure, store, and manage user identities and access privileges. IAM verifies that users are who they say they are and it only enables access to applications and resources if the users have the authorization to use them.

Some of the most common IAM solutions consists of single sign-on (SSO), two factor and multi-factor authentication (MFA), access management, etc. IAM solutions can be deployed both on-premises or in the cloud.

Importance of IAM

The current technologies enable businesses to be nimbler and more efficient than ever before. For example, cloud lets your employees work from anyplace, any time and on any device. Nevertheless, this also means that your workforce has become vulnerable to cyber threats.

This is the reason, it is important to embrace an efficient security solution-one that emphases on identity rather than physical or system security, and this is precisely what IAM is intended for. It makes sure that all members of your network, including your employees, customers, and partners are only allowed entry into the system after proper checks and authorizations. This is just one aspect of IAM. Few more specific benefits of the technology are listed below:

Centralize access control:

• IAM strikes the perfect balance between too little and too much access by letting you set centralized policies for the right access privileges. For instance, you can deny your design team access permissions to the payroll system but provide such access to the finance team.
  Each user’s role and responsibility can be leveraged to determine which resources and what extent they can access. This enhances security and offers flexibility with ease of supervision.

Minimal chances of data breaches:

• With SSO and MFA, your staffs will no longer have to reminisce multiple passwords. Instead, they would be able to verify their identity using evidence-based approvals such as answering a security question, the answer to which only authorized user knows. IAM is also furnished with cutting-edge encryption tools to protect sensitive data. This way, chances of user-credentials being compromised is reduced.

Improve user experience:

• Customers today interact with businesses across many channels, whether it is the cloud or third-party applications. This is where IAM can pitch in and enhance customer experience with SSO services, self-service capabilities, unified customer profiles, etc. IAM also enables employees to access the company information with better security and convenience.

Achieve regulatory compliance:

• Businesses today must adapt to the constantly changing regulatory requirements pertaining to data identity, access, and privacy management. IAM is intended on such principles that regulate over who can access data and how can it be used and shared.

Reduce IT costs:

• IAM automates and regulates many aspects of identity systems, validation, and authorization management. This means you’ll be able to reduce significant labor costs concerned with keeping your business environment secure. IAM solution enables you with advanced security without conceding on usability and convenience. To function in current digital age, it is imperative to have IAM in any business environment.

The Problem with Traditional IAM

Legacy identity management systems and procedures are outdated in keeping up with modern demands. The five core problems with traditional IAM solutions (mostly on-premises) are:

Outdated Hardware: Having large number of hardware’s on-site incurs a physical security risk that becomes your responsibility to manage and chances of compromise therefore goes high.

Expensive Maintenance: It is expensive to maintain On-premise identity and access management. For e.g. you would have to pay for the implementation costs, and implementation itself can take months. You would also need to hire specialized staff to manage the IAM program in its entirety. An IAM program will comprise of software, personnel and processes required to govern access and identity throughout the organization. To obtain additional features, you might be required to pay more.

Ineffective upgrades: The updates to on-premise software doesn’t come frequently. In the interim, you'll have to spend your valuable time with outdated solutions.

Maintenance of many facets: IAM gives you the best results to protect your organization in its entirety. That means that all department and personnel are included in the IAM oversight. Unfortunately, legacy on-premise IAM solutions make this kind of arrangement difficult. This is the reason; you might be asked to install and maintain multiple facets of the IAM solution. Each facet will burden you with more admin work.

Difficult to Scale: Traditional IAM solutions are very difficult to scale. For e.g., IAM solutions must incorporate evolving cybersecurity solutions. In addition, setting up new employees who have joined remotely can be a massive hassle with on-prem IAM solution. Especially with the COVID scenario where employees are working remotely, it is a major challenge to manage identity with traditional IAM solutions.

Disrupting Cloud Identity and Access Management

Office productivity has been revolutionized with the advent of Cloud. The same goes with IAM. A Cloud IAM solution is superior to a traditional on-premise solution. Nevertheless, there is skepticism in terms of security with regards to Cloud. These questions must be answered before you opt for the Cloud IAM product. Here are few things you need to consider:

Cloud Security Acceptance: Deploying your data into a cloud system raises questions about the security of that data. For e.g., your data might be vulnerable if the IAM vendor fails to work properly with the cloud infrastructure providers. In fact, skepticism about cloud security is legitimate. Let’s look at one incident. In 2017, 6 million Verizon customer accounts were exposed by the cloud vendor due to "a bad security setting on a server."

Legacy System Challenges: Most companies do not come to the IAM table with an empty slate. Traditional IAM solutions are still hard to dispose as they have considerable value over past investments in terms of personnel and technology. Cloud, unfortunately still remains a tough sell.

Lack of Cloud Training: Training your personnel on the ever-evolving cloud techniques is a big problem. Employees have spent years learning and earning certifications about traditional IAM solutions. Asking them to abandon the efforts of years and simply adopting Cloud can be an immense challenge. Some of the technical skills won’t transfer from on-prem to Cloud and you would need to invest a lot in terms of trainings to make this work.

ORSUS Identity Access and Governance

ISSQUARED’s ORSUS Identity Access and Governance (IAG) is a comprehensive and intelligent identity management platform that streamlines the process of managing identities and controlling their access, while improving operational agility and the overall security posture. It offers an unparalleled set of features to provide users the right level of access they need to enable them to stay productive, while supporting security, privacy and compliance mandates.

With ORSUS IAG you can,

• Ensure only the right people access the right resources and applications at the right time.

• Reduce IT burdens, costs and error-prone manual activities, thereby accelerating operational efficiency.

• Tailor business processes based on your specific needs through workflows, templates and policies.

• Deliver automation and enhance end-user productivity through self-service capabilities.

• Improve risk and security posture by enforcing compliance controls and policies.

Contact Us

Interested in ORSUS IAG? Please reach out to one of our experts. We would be delighted to showcase the product and its features. You can reach out to us at mailto:sales@issquaredinc.com or call us at +1 (805) 480-9300.