Identity and Access Management

Every organization has different levels in their hierarchy. Even the organizations with the flattest hierarchical structure need to implement differentiation in user access for critical information. This is where the role of Identity and Access Management (IAM) comes into play.

Identity and Access Management is a framework of policies and technologies which ensure that the correct set of people have access to the correct set of resources within an organization. This framework falls under the radar of IT security and data management.

What are Identity and Access Management systems?

IAM systems identify, authenticate and authorize individuals on the user side. On the resource side, these systems also manage the hardware and applications that users are allowed to access. Users can be employees within an organization, or the customers that use the products offered by a system.

The popularity of IAM solutions has risen over the past few years owing to the several compliance requirements that most organizations are now bound by. Its popularity can also be attributed to the increase in cloud computing and the adoption of an increasingly distributed mobile workforce.

IAM tools include but are not limited to:

Password management tools
Security policy enforcement tools
Software provisioning tools
Reporting and monitoring apps
Identity repositories

What are the applications of Identity and Access Management Products?

According to the Forrester Research report, the following IAM technologies are the on-demand applications of IAM products:

API Security: Enabling IAM for integration to the cloud, microservices-based architecture, Single-sign-on (SSO) applications, and Internet of Things (IoT) device authorization.
Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM): Enabling IAM for comprehensive self-service, profile and authentication management of users in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) space.
Identity Analytics (IA): Enabling IAM for detection and prevention of risky identity behaviors by using artificial intelligence and statistical algorithms.
Identity as a Service (IDaaS): IAM that's offered with the popular SaaS model, and usually offers SSO, user account provisioning, and access request management.
Identity Management and Governance (IMG): Enabling IAM to govern the identity lifecycle, especially suitable for compliance with privacy and identity regulations.

What are the benefits of using Identity and Access Management solutions?

Enforce best pratices with Identity and Access Mangement

Enforcing best practices

Fault or weak passwords are the cause of most data breaches. IAM solutions enforce best security practices by ensuring that users set stronger passwords.

Mitigate insider threats with Identity and Access Mangement

Mitigating insider threats

Insider threat is growing and a real problem. IAM helps limit the damage by ensuring users have permissions as per their role, and privilege escalation is kept at bay.

Track anomalies with Identity and Access Mangement

Tracking anomalies

Modern IAM solutions integrate AI and risk-based authentication to their systems, making anomaly tracking an easy deal.

Multi-factor security

IAM solutions allow organizations to leverage the benefits of multi-factor security using capabilities like face recognition, iris scanning, and fingerprint sensors.

improve user experience with Identity and Access Mangement

Improving user experience

IAM solutions also offer SSO to users. It also allows users to access all interconnected systems regardless of their physical location, thus improving user experience considerably.

Simplify Auditing and Reporting with Identity and Access Mangement

Simplifying auditing and reporting for compliance

IAM solutions also offer easy auditing and reporting for compliance. They make it easier for IT people to point out the breaches and save audit logs for the time when the user account has been accessed, thus making auditing and reporting a breeze.

Security enhancement with the help of Identity and Access Mangement

Enhancing security profiles

Some IAM solutions, like Foxpass include additional levels of security. Foxpass is unique because it allows for the restricting of access based on time of day, membership to a group, etc..

Identity and Access Mangement help in increase of productivity

Increasing productivity

IAM solutions allow authentication from any location and have policies that can automate identity access and management, thus freeing the IT staff. SSO also reduces the time required to log in to every application, thus making employees more productive.

What are the challenges of using Identity and Access Management Solutions?

Easily distribute workforce with Identity and Access Mangement

Distributed workforce and applications

Organizations are adopting the work from home, or remote work policy nowadays. With this, the workforce is spread across vast geographical locations. Additionally, with the growth of the cloud-based and SaaS models, users now log in to critical business applications that are diverse and distributed. A distributed workforce using distributed applications certainly improves productivity but can be daunting to IT administrators.

Solution: A centrally managed IAM solution that offers visibility and control of the distributed workforce and distributed applications.

increase theproductivity with the help of Identity and Access Mangement

Productive provisioning

IT staff needs to provide access manually in the absence of a centralized IAM solution. This takes up time and decreases productivity. Manual provisioning and de-provisioning of user access is prone to error and oversights.

Solution: A robust IAM solution that automates provisioning and de-provisioning of user access.

Solve all the password related issues with Identity and Access Mangement

Password Problems

With an increasing number of applications, users need to remember a huge list of passwords, making productivity a thing of the past and user frustration at the peak of an eruption. When users forget their passwords, they look out to IT staff for help, thus repeatedly draining IT resources when they could be directed at something more productive.

Solution: An IAM solution that federates user identity by offering SSO capability.

Regulate complience with Identity and Access Mangement

Regulatory Compliance

Compliance and corporate governance are becoming a source of concern for organizations as most clients refuse to be associated with them in the absence of such compliance and audits. It is hence a challenge to maintain logs of which user has accessed what at which time.

Solution: An IAM solution that supports compliance, automates audit log reporting and generates comprehensive reports.

How can Foxpass help?

Foxpass is an Identity and Access Management solution that automates server and network access in minutes and protects your infrastructure from breaches. Foxpass puts security and reliability at the front, integrates easily with whatever identity systems you have in place, and does all this at up to an 80% lower price than the competition.

Additionally, Foxpass offers a full-fledged API that can help you automate and manage user permissions with ease, eliminating the challenge of productive provisioning. It logs authentication requests for greater visibility into your infrastructure, and you can use these logs for compliance and governance requirements too.

Foxpass also offers self-service SSH keys and password management, removing the IT team overhead. Its effortless integration with your existing infrastructure is the icing on the cake, that makes Foxpass and must-have for identity and access management.

Download the free trial today!