IDENTITY & ACCESS MANAGEMENT AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE!
The goal of IAM (identity and access management) is to make sure every digital identity in an enterprise has access to the needed resources, like systems, applications, files and networks. In this way sensitive business data and systems are protected as only the authorized identities have access to the correct resources.
IAM is a broad concept that includes many identity management and access management features including, but not limited to, Life cycle management, Governance, Single Sign-on (SSO), Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) and Privileged Account Management (PAM)
But why do you need an identity and access management solution? Find out below!
"Identity management is key to ensure trust, as well as to facilitate collaboration and improve analytics"
WHAT IS SINGLE SIGN-ON (SSO)?
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication process that allows a user to access multiple applications with one set of credentials, lowering the user’s threshold by reducing the number of login times and ensuring productivity.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN BENEFITS OF IAM?
1. INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY
These tools can improve the processing time for access and identity changes as well as reduce errors. This because of the centralization of the identity and access management life cycle and the ability to create automated workflows focused on your companies’ structure.
2. REDUCES COSTS
Reducing costs is one of the main benefits of IAM, and this can be done on different levels and aspects:
- General: Employees win time with an efficient and seamless integration between resources
- IT: Internal help desks win a lot of time, and thus money, as they do not need to help users when locked out of a specific system.
- HR: Save time when enrolling new employees, a colleague goes on maternity leave or someone exits the company. With IAM, this can be automated, and the costs avoided.
3. EASY ACCESS WHEREVER THE IDENTITIES ARE
Do your employees work on a lot of different physical locations? With IAM, users (employees, partners or clients) have access to all the connected resources whether they are in the office, at home or travelling.
4. EASY AUDITING AND REPORTING
IT departments consume a lot of time with auditing and reporting; when and where are specific credentials used? Is this normal activity or are the credentials compromised? IAM systems make it a lot easier for IT departments to figure out which user is compromised and what data was accessed during a breach.
5. ENHANCED SECURITY
- As IAM tools can authenticate and authorize the access rights of identities, the security level can be increased.
- Identity and access management tools can also be used to remove or correct inappropriate access privileges, without having to go through multiple systems.
- Identifying policy violations to make sure security measures are configured correctly so they meet all requirements is another way to enhance security via IAM.
6. IMPROVES USER EXPERIENCE
Remembering dozens of usernames with all kinds of credentials can be difficult for a lot of employees, partners and clients. This is a wide spread problem, which leads to password fatigue and increased risk. With IAM, an identity can be created with which users have access to multiple different systems without the hassle of remembering different credentials.