Growth of identity and access management explained

Featured article by Dean Wiech, managing director at Tools4ever

The identity and access management (IAM) industry is currently one the fastest growing IT sectors with more than a 500 percent growth expected by the start of the next decade. This market expansion will likely remain steady as companies of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprise entities, are seeing and experiencing the benefits of these solutions. The (obvious) return on investment is evident, they are finding, and those from all industries including healthcare, education, the financial sector, government agencies, manufacturing and others, to name a few.

This is incredible growth, so why so much movement in a market that tends to have high priced solutions and lengthy implementations? In the past, many companies were hesitant to implement an access management solution because they believed it would be extremely costly and very time consuming to do so. Given the surge in the sector’s growth, it is obvious that these conceptions are either wrong or that there is a tremendous benefit that many organizations receive from IAM solutions.

So why is the industry growing so quickly and is this something that your business should be implementing?

Quick Implementation and Budget Friendly

First and foremost, over the past few years the identity and access management solutions have become much more affordable and customizable. This has allowed organizations to keep costs down allowing them to implement the technology, but also customize it so that they can receive the greatest benefits the software has to offer. Often, companies hear the horror stories about how an IAM implementation was unsuccessful because it either took years to install properly or was never actually completed correctly.

Many IAM solutions can now be implemented in a phased approach to avoid these issues. This means that they can take care of the biggest problems companies face first then phase in components they consider to be secondary as their time and budgets permit. It also means that they can pick and choose which modules they want to implement and in what order. This allows organizations the ability to customize the solution exactly to their organization’s needs. This also allows them the ability to spread costs over a longer term. As IAM solutions have advanced, pricing has gone down and have become much easier to tailor to the company’s needs. This allows the organization to pick and choose which features they want to implement and then add additional features in the future when there is more budget available for upgrades.

Automation and Self Service

One of the biggest reasons for the growth in the identity and access management markets is the ease of use and the ability to make processes for companies more efficient. Organizations are always looking for ways to streamline their work while also making processes more efficient and secure. Automating workflow and providing self-service abilities to drive some manageable responsibilities down to employees allows manages to focus on more pressing issues and not mundane account management tasks.

Organizations of all sizes have realized that virtually any manual process done is a waste of time and leads to potential errors. Automation of account management is no longer a thing of the future, and has become a necessity. This allows system admins to easily create, modify or disable user accounts with one simple change in the source system, usually HR. This change is then automatically carried out to all connected systems, thus eliminating an account admin needing to manually create accounts or changes in each separate system or application.

Organizations have also seen the immense benefit of self-service modules. An example of this is a self-service workflow. This type of module allows users go to a website and request what they need, whether that be access to an application, a name change, mailbox, distribution list or anything else. A workflow is set up so that when a user requests a change, the request then goes through a predefined sequence of people who need to approve it before the change is implemented. The organization can set up the workflow process however they want, so that depending on the user and what they request, the process goes through certain steps. There is no need for the employee to bother their manager to check on the request. They can easily access the web portal and see exactly where the request is and what steps still need to be completed.

Complete IAM Solution

Many IAM software solutions now allow for a complete suite of modules to solve many of the organization’s issues. As mentioned earlier, the solutions can also easily be customized to meet the individual needs of the client’s environment.

Nowadays, employees have many different types of applications and systems they log into, and organizations are adopting new platforms and applications every day. These IAM solutions have advanced to be able to be flexible enough to work with newer systems as they are developed and deployed at different organizations.

Companies also want complete IAM solutions that can take on more responsibility – not just managing access rights in Active Directory and email servers. Many IAM solutions are now able to handle a multitude of tasks in each application. In addition to the common tasks, such as automating the creation, modification, or deletion of accounts, they can handle more advanced task, such as wiping mobile phones, editing groups or attributes, assigning phone extensions and so forth. IAM solutions have become more advanced in what they can facilitate, and can also be customized to perform additional tasks that the company may want.

In addition to all of the functions that they can perform, these IAM solutions can be paired with other helpful solutions such as password management software like single sign-on or self-service password reset to solve additional password issues.

Reporting

Lastly, another important benefit of IAM solutions is more oversight and control by system administrators and managers that, in turn, adds additional security to a system. Many IAM solutions allow managers the ability to easily create reports to have an overview of exactly what is happening on their network. They can easily see and monitor usage, access rights or changes in different systems and applications. This allows them to easily correct any issues. For example, a manager can generate a report of exactly who has access to which applications in the network, and correct any issues where employees might have incorrect access rights to ensure that the company’s network remains secure.

Overall the growth in the IAM industry is obvious. In addition to being extremely helpful with enhancing security and efficiency at an organization, these solutions have become much more budget-friendly and easier to implement. This is why it is easy to understand why the industry has become so popular.

Dean Wiech is managing director at Tools4ever, a global provider of identity and access management solutions.