What is Identity and Access Management (IAM)?

Identity and access management, or IAM, ensures that a company’s appropriate individuals and job responsibilities can access the resources required to execute duties. Thanks to IAM, a firm can control staff applications without logging into each app as an admin.

Moreover, companies may manage a variety of identities, including people, software, and hardware, such as the Internet of Things and robotics, with the aid of this solution.

Benefits of Adopting IAM

Companies need IAM to give online security and increase employee productivity.

The password is frequently the weakest pillar of traditional security. A company can be vulnerable to cyberattacks if a user’s password is compromised or, worse, if the email address they use to recover their passwords is also affected. IAM services reduce these points of failure and provide capabilities to detect errors when they occur.

In terms of productivity, employees will no longer have to worry about not having the correct password or access level to accomplish responsibilities after entering the primary IAM portal. In addition, IT staff can lessen their workload if every employee has access to the ideal set of tools for their job since their access may be controlled by a role or group rather than an individual.

How Does the IAM Work?

1. Manage user identities: IAM systems have two options: they either interact with one or more other directories and synchronise with them, or they can be the only directory used to add, edit, and remove people. Individuals who require specific access to an organisation’s resources can also have their identities specially created through identity and access management.
2. Provisioning and deprovisioning users: Provisioning is deciding which tools and access levels (viewer, editor, administrator) to give a user. After consulting with the relevant department managers, IT departments can provide users with according to the department, role, or other categories of IAM technologies. Identity management systems use role-based access control (RBAC) policies to allow provisioning because it is time-consuming to specify each person’s access to every resource. Users are automatically granted access by the RBAC IAM system once they are appointed one or more roles, usually depending on the nature of their employment. Provisioning also goes the other way: IAM enables your company to swiftly revoke an employee’s access to systems to minimise security concerns brought about by their continued use.
3. Authenticating users: IAM systems verify a user’s identity to authenticate them. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and, ideally, adaptive authentication are now considered secure authentication methods.
4. Authorising users: Access management guarantees that users are given the precise kind and degree of access to a tool they legally should acquire. Users can also be divided into roles or groups to offer the same privileges to large groups of users.
5. Reporting: To assure compliance and evaluate security threats, IAM tools generate reports after the majority of actions made on the platform (such as login time, systems accessed, and type of authentication).
6. Single Sign-On: Users can authenticate their identity using a single portal rather than various resources with the aid of identity and access management solutions with single sign-on (SSO). Upon successful authentication, the user no longer needs to remember multiple passwords because the IAM system is the source of identity truth for all other available resources.

Difference Between Identity Management and Access Management

Identity management preserves personal data and verifies the legitimacy of a user. An identity management database verifies that an individual exists in the database and contains details about their identification, such as their work title and direct reports.

On the other hand, access management uses a person’s identity information to decide which software suites that user can use and what it can do for a specific set of tasks. Access control, for instance, will guarantee that all managers who supervise direct reports have access to an app for approving timesheets, but not to the point where they can approve them themselves.

How can iZOOlogic help my Company or Organisation?

Find out how iZOOlogic can provide Identity and Access Management services through our Digital Asset Management solutions.

To find out more about how iZOOlogic can help protect your company’s cyber security, schedule a demo.