Heterogenous & hybrid IT environments make it hard for businesses, to manage user rights and access to privacy data, critical applications and systems. With a mix of cloud-based services and on-premise solutions, it is necessary to ensure that right users have rightful and necessary access to right data at the right time. IAM stands for Identity & Access Management, and this discipline allows businesses to have a system, where access rights are governed and kept in check for every user, so as to ensure compliance and protect data and important applications. Investing in an IAM tool is not really a choice, especially for businesses in the EU that are finding it hard to keep up with GDPR compliance requirements.

Signs that your business needs an IAM tool-

• If the management has been having a hard time compiling data on who has access to what systems, data resources and critical applications.

• If the current system for identity management has been ineffective in establishing transparent policies and a simplified platform.

• If your company has been getting audit remarks for identity management and access rights.

• If your company doesn’t have an existing system for access governance.

• If your company needs to change its approach to compliance and bring more responsibility to all digital users within the organization.

How to choose the right identity management (IAM) solution?

It really depends on what kind of IT environment your company has and whether you need identity management (IAM) solution as a cloud-based service, or as a product. The best IAM tools are designed to connect with some of the common systems like SAP, Salesforce, Active Directory and more, and therefore, the implementation doesn’t have to be a big concern. Cloud-based IAM solutions rely on Microsoft Azure, so you can expect the best-in-class security, and for many companies, this could be a more scalable solution, because such services are sold as a service, so the costs can be managed. If you are looking for a comprehensive IAM suite, we strongly recommend that you consider the onboarding process and support that you get from the service provider. Eventually, you would want minimum disruption to your normal activities and business operations.

Lastly, IAM alone is not enough for access governance. If you really want to prevent a security breach, make your employees, privilege users, and managers aware of data protection measures, best practices, and their individual roles.