Identity management is a common term that encapsulates the technologies or solutions required to solve the problems pertaining to identification, authentication, and authorization of a person, or a group of people, and their access to resources or data. In any organization, seamless identity management depends on three major factors working in tandem with each other: identity and access management (IAM), privileged access management, and identity governance.
Traditionally, IAM solutions were deployed on-premises to keep track of users and control access. But over the years, managing identity and access has become more complex and is inextricably bound not just to security but also to user experience and productivity. More importantly, for IT and security teams, effective identity management brings about ease of use and scalability, as their organization’s requirements and challenges evolve constantly.
The average employee no longer uses just one office-issued computer but instead has at least two additional devices, a mobile phone and a tablet or a personal laptop. On top of this, with the sudden onset of work from home and hybrid work models, users are able to access their data from anywhere (including public Wi-Fi) and are no longer bound to accessing resources only from their workplace. It has become increasingly difficult for traditional identity management solutions like on-premises AD to manage identity and secure access. Threats of attacks on the network and breaches have become commonplace.
These challenges—coupled with businesses rapidly moving to cloud or hybrid platforms, and most application vendors adopting the SaaS approach—are steering organizations towards the obvious solution: IDaaS.
IDaaS refers to Identity as a Service, a cloud-based subscription model where identity and management services are provided over the internet by a third party, as opposed to traditional IAM solutions that are deployed on-premises. It comprises diverse components, like:
The biggest difference between on-premises IAM solutions and IDaaS is that with IDaaS, users can securely and seamlessly access their account across devices and networks.
IDaaS is briskly gaining popularity for the following reasons:
It unifies multiple services, like data storage, self-service account recovery, access request management, and user life cycle management. It also eliminates the need for any specialized training for IT technicians. Since it is a subscription-based or pay-as-you-go model, organizations can adopt and scale up with the latest identity management technology easily.
An IDaaS solution does not need to be hosted on any dedicated infrastructure. Businesses can subscribe to the service and use it from day one without the need for additional support like server installation or manual software updates.
Users can access multiple services in a central console from anywhere without the need for multiple credentials or VPNs. It also fosters a simplified product ecosystem for users as they don't need to sign on to different applications or services separately.
IDaaS helps users adhere to the principle of Zero Trust by securing access for users irrespective of location, device, or network. It also makes it easier to deploy conditional access to users, where additional authentication methods can be enforced based on factors like IP address, device, or location. Additionally, IDaaS solutions allow organizations to enforce uniform, strong security policies across multiple applications from a centralized console. They also eliminate password fatigue among users and promote better security practices.
Most compliance regulations mandate that organizations give complete autonomy over users' data to the users themselves. This can be accomplished with IDaaS as self-service account management and other identity management actions can be done with ease. It simplifies and enables businesses to be compliant with a wide variety of compliance regulations, like the GDPR, the CCPA, and HIPAA.
IAM challenges are evolving at break-neck speed. To meet the challenges of the hybrid IT environment that has become common today, organizations should place their faith in an IDaaS solution. An equally critical decision is to choose a robust, scalable, and future-proof IDaaS solution that suits your organization's security needs today and will continue to do so in the future. Depending on the nature and size of your business, choose a vendor that offers IDaaS solutions with services like SSO, federated identity management, MFA, directory services, user life cycle management, self-service management, integrations with other applications, and auditing, reporting, and monitoring.
According to a report by Adroit Market Research, the global IDaaS market is projected to be worth $7.66 billion by 2025. With the pandemic pushing businesses to adopt a cloud-first approach, there is increasingly urgent demand for identity management solutions that are flexible and robust enough to manage both legacy and cloud-based systems. It's safe to say that IDaaS is definitely here to stay.
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