Introduction
IT departments worldwide are facing the challenges of providing seamless access to business resources and applications to the staff while ensuring security. The need for uninterrupted access to resources from any time and anywhere coupled with growing security concerns are the key drivers of Identity Access and Management (IAM) systems. The various factors which necessitate the need for IAM systems are as follows:
Distributed and Diversified Workforce
Companies are becoming global and are employing highly diversified and distributed workforce. While it is good for the business and improving productivity, such widely distributed workforce makes it difficult for the IT departments to provide rich end-user experience to the staff connecting to business applications without compromising on the security. The exponential growth of mobile platforms has made it difficult for IT teams to track and control the employee’s work habits. IAM helps to provide security and excellent end-user experience for accessing business applications and resources.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policies
Most organizations have implemented the BYOD policies. This allows the staff to bring their personal devices like mobile and laptops from which they can access business applications and resources. Though this policy allows the staff the flexibility of using their personal devices and accessing the business resources on their devices anytime and anywhere, it has inherent risks also. This is where IAM plays an important role by providing the appropriate authentication, authorization, and access to the staff for accessing resources on their personal devices and then revoking the authorization when needed. It helps to safeguard the sensitive data and resources of the organization.
Password Management
Password management is one of the most critical challenges for the implementation of a robust IAM system. Employees have to remember numerous passwords for accessing business applications. It can be difficult and frustrating to remember so many passwords and consumes the unnecessary time of the staff. Some passwords have validity and they need to be regularly changed. Many times, users forget to change their passwords and have to approach the IT department for resetting the password which consumes time and money.
Securing Social Media Identities
Companies are increasingly using social media for engaging with their customers and clients. This helps to improve brand awareness and boosts the company visibility and drives the bottom line. However, in the unfortunate instance of breaching of these social media identities, the companies can face serious legal actions and other regulatory and operational risks. Social media services must make use of a robust IAM system to protect the corporate social media identities. It should include Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and notification alerts to the users for multiple failed login attempts.