Identity and Access Management is a set of tools, processes, and policies that define and manage the role of users and devices and access permissions to on-premises and cloud applications.
IAM users include customers (Customer Identity Management) and employees (Employee Identity Management). With IAM technologies, IT administrators can ensure that users are who they say they are (authentication) and that users are accessing applications and resources to which they are entitled (authorization).
IAM is typically implemented through a centralized technology that replaces or deeply integrates with existing sign-up and access systems. It uses a central directory with predefined users, roles, and permission levels to grant people access rights based on their user role and need access to specific systems, applications, and data.
Why is IAM important for organizations?
Without IAM policies and solutions, organizations can be vulnerable to cyberattacks. For example, recent data breach cases suggest that some incidents are the result of poor user training to combat phishing attacks and hack credentials to access user accounts.
One of the most notable attacks to disrupt oil transit on the East Coast in 2021 occurred when Colonial Pipeline fell victim to a ransomware attack caused by a compromised password. This incident could have been avoided with proper identity and access management controls. By implementing identity and access management systems and controls, organizations can avoid falling victim to the growing threat of cyberattacks that result in lost revenue and damaged reputation.
Five advantages of IAM solutions
Improved security
IAM solutions helps IT security teams to identify and minimize risks in a network. They are also used to identify or receive alerts for specific policy violations across systems. This ensures that security procedures comply with government or industry regulations.
Exchange of information
By using IAM systems, organizations have access to a centralized platform that can provide information related to identity and access management. IAM systems also help enforce policies related to user authentication, authorization, and validation.
Easy to use
For administrators, IAM systems simplify the management of user names and access rights. Depending on your work profiles, access management rights and permissions may be granted. IAM systems can also provide access based on user history, risks, and the context in which the user is requesting specific access to IT infrastructure resources.
Productivity gains
Because IAM systems centralize access by bundling all access-related policies together, it helps administrators adopt a scalable and consistent approach to policy enforcement. They also enable IT managers to enable automation principles that help grant or revoke permissions on IT infrastructure resources easily and effectively. Automated provisioning tools can also be used to provide instant access simply by checking user rights. This frees up valuable time for IT administrators to focus on other priority tasks.
Reduced IT costs
IAM services can reduce operational costs. By using identity federation services, organizations no longer need to rely on local identities for external purposes. This simplifies the application management process. Businesses can also leverage cloud-based IAM services to reduce or eliminate the need to purchase or maintain IAM systems on-premises.
The user access identity management provider TOOLS4EVER offers high quality identity management software to enable secure accounts and assigning of permissions to employees, clients and visitors.
Summing Up
Identity and Access management makes accessing the user accounts easy and secure for employees in an organization. Companies can also assign permissions to visitors and clients to use accounts when required. An in-house user access identity management provider, tools4ever enables organizations to make their user accounts convenient to access and secure.
