As the digital and mobile world has expanded, the need for identity and access management (IAM) has grown.
We live in a day and age where we are connected all the time. Whether that be through our work, social media, or devices – we’re constantly being consumed by the digital world. With such constant connectivity comes a whole new set of etiquette, risks, and responsibilities.
One of these areas is called Identity & Access Management (IAM) which helps organizations protect against identity theft, user credentials and easily cracked passwords that are common network entry points for criminal hackers who want to plant ransomware or steal data.
True enterprise security is not possible without a system to govern identity and access. When implemented properly, IAM solutions can increase productivity among workers by allowing access to data across multiple applications, locations, and devices.
It also allows for greater collaboration with other organizations, vendors, and business partners.
The best approach to implementing an IAM solution is to do an audit of existing and legacy systems. Identify gaps and opportunities, and collaborate with stakeholders early and often. Map out all user types and access scenarios, and define a core set of objectives the IAM solution must meet.
Why Should you implement an Enterprise-wide Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution?
IAM is comprised of the systems and processes that allow IT administrators to assign a single digital identity to each entity, authenticate them when they log in, authorize them to access specified resources, and monitor and manage those identities throughout their lifecycle.
Your workforce has moved beyond the protections of on-premise security, you need to embrace another security solution, one that focuses on identity security and governance rather than physical or network security, which is exactly what IAM was designed for.
Identity and User Lifecycle Management:
In your organization today, how do you grant access to a new employee? When an employee changes roles or is promoted, how do you ensure that the former access is retrieved and he has just access to what he needs to work? These are some of the benefits of an IAM solution. An IAM solution gives you the platform to automate access to resources from the onboarding stage all the way up until the employee is terminated.
Password Reset Self-Service:
In most organizations, the IT or security team spends tons of man-hours receiving calls from employees for passport resets. In fact, in some big organizations with a large number of employees, a team is dedicated to this task. An IAM system can take this hurdle away from your IT/Security team, allowing them to focus more on what matters most, which is ensuring the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of the organization’s resources.
Auditing and Compliance:
How do you prove to your internal and external auditors that users have access to only those applications and resources that they need to work with? A typical IAM system usually has a detailed auditing capability, giving you the ability to periodically review user entitlements and also generate reports for auditors and management.
Businesses today must meet the constantly changing regulatory requirements concerning data access, identity governance, and privacy management. IAM was designed with just that in mind and provides control over who can access data and how it can be used and shared.
Centralized Control for identity administration:
From a single console, you can gain visibility into all applications integrated into the IAM system and user entitlements, and create workflows and enterprise-wide policies as required by management and regulatory bodies.
Identity and access management is a critical component of any enterprise security program. It helps protect against compromised user credentials and easily cracked passwords which are common network entry points for criminal hackers who want to plant ransomware or steal data.
The goal of identity and access management (IAM) in an enterprise is to ensure that only the right people with the right roles have access to the right resources. Robust identity and access management solution offers you the platform to manage your people and applications from one single console.
Done well, IAM helps ensure business productivity and frictionless functioning of digital systems.