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Technologies Transforming the Identity and Access Management Market

CIO Review Europe | Wednesday, November 06, 2019

Identity and access management (IAM) is transforming to meet the needs of the existing digital era.

FREMONT, CA: With software organizations distributed worldwide irrespective of the boundaries, the end-users of their software products can possibly be from different geographical areas. This action of gaining access by various parties or users is not safe when some illegal users try to accomplish the same. So, organizations look forward to safeguarding their information assets against the threats of criminal hacking, phishing, and other malware attacks. In that regard, identity and access management (IAM) is fast emerging to help organizations set the precise mechanism while avoiding unwanted exposure of sensitive information. Identity and Access Management refers to the process employed by organizations and businesses to allow the right individuals to access their resources while deterring others from entering their environment, thereby securing their systems.

IAM is an IT security measure that comprises of policies, protocols, and procedures at various organizational levels, thus imposing strict monitoring and protection. Almost, all the sectors ranging from finance to healthcare use IAM to comply with best compliance standards to protect their business records. When IAM can protect enterprises, it can also enhance their productivity. IAM verifies user access requests and decides whether to grant or deny permission to authorized business data. Thus IAM systems provide organizations with technologies and tools including password-management tools, reporting, monitoring apps provisioning software, identity repositories, and security-policy enforcement applications to track user activities.

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With the rise in the end-user security threats, organizations should adopt the latest technologies in IAM to accommodate the complexities of the existing computing environment. Here are the current IAM trends in the market.

Moving IAM to the cloud

Almost 95 percent of organizations are already deploying their applications in the cloud and it is no wonder IAM is being migrated to the cloud as well. It is one of the most prominent trends because these tasks are usually handled in the backend, which gives the IT team time to manage other priorities. It helps to centrally manage the users who access the cloud resources while keeping the business under control. Nowadays, cloud providers provide their cloud solutions with integrated IAM tools, eliminating the need for migration and the associated cost. In any organization, this migration can enable critical administration, authentication, authorization, and audit responsibilities. Organizations that run most of their applications benefit from this cloud-based IAM tools provided by Google and others. The cloud identity provides free identity services for users by creating a free account for them and managing them from the Google Admin console.

Advanced Authentication methods

Utilizing one set of credentials to allow users to log in to applications is no longer acceptable to meet the growing security threat that the IT sectors should be aware of the new authentication technologies in the market. Organizations should consider integrating emerging technologies into their IAM strategies. Techniques such as smart card and biometric access take the organizations a step forward by incorporating the identity data for the individual.

Multifactor authentication (MFA) authenticates users with more than one method. Authenticator app that can be deployed in organizations using Microsoft 365 provides multiple options like PIN, facial recognition, iris scanning, and others to sign in. Also, there are MFA apps that send notifications to the users' mobile enquiring the login attempt. Followed by the multifactor authentication is the next-generation successor, adaptive authentication that uses machine learning to calculate risk scores and determine an appropriate security response.

GDPR impacts IAM

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in May this year. The European Union GDPR bolsters data protection, and it imposes a severe impact on organizations that fail to manage and secure their data. According to GDPR, individuals have ownership of their identities that businesses should understand and cater to the needs, especially when it comes to changing or deleting personal records. Also, GDPR can fine organizations for data breaches, and it can be avoided if the organizations have deployed the first line of defense ‘IAM’ to minimize damage.

Adding value to UEM

Another significant trend is the unification of unified endpoint management (UEM) and IAM platforms that enables administrators to manage a UEM console solely. Breaking the silos between the two independent platforms, organizations should focus on integrating them, thus helping accomplish the unified management. UEM vendors such as Citrix and Okta comes with features to integrate IAM with their platform.

Successful implementation of identity and access management requires forethought, clear objectives, and defined business processes, because the old practices of IAM are no longer supported, organizations should readily embrace the above trends to ensure compliance.

See Also: Top Identity and Access Management Companies

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