Managing user access across your entire IT system is vital to driving daily operations and maximizing your bottom line. Not only does identity and access management (IAM) help mitigate costly downtime for your teams, but it can also help prevent cybersecurity breaches.
Your identity and access management program, when correctly implemented, plays an integral role in securing your business data, achieving compliance, and supporting efficiencies across all departments. But implementing a program requires advanced knowledge and experience with identity management.
This is why managed identity service partners can be a vital resource.
Managed identity services provide organizations with a comprehensive set of solutions for managing user identities and access to applications and systems. Partners can provide several solutions, including:
Service providers tend to be certified as a partner for specific software vendors. This makes it easier for leaders to find a good fit for their business.
For example, let’s say your IT department uses SailPoint, one of the leading platforms for identity security. If your leadership team found a need for help with specific SailPoint offerings, it’s best to search for certified SailPoint partners who bring technical knowledge and extensive experience leveraging the platform.
Regardless of the technologies being used, businesses can benefit from managed identity services in many ways.
Managing data access is a necessity for companies of all sizes and industries. As businesses continue to adopt more technologies while scaling their business, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of changing users and permissions across all corners of your IT system.
With an established managed identity service provider, you can cover all the bases and enjoy the following advantages:
The rise in IAM software utilization is staggering. In fact, global spending for IAM rose to an estimated $19 billion in U.S. dollars in 2022. This rise in investing for IAM makes sense when you consider how robust IAM platforms can be.
A unified platform helps with managing user information across multiple systems. So instead of manually administering updates across multiple systems, teams can make all kinds of changes within one platform. This saves a lot of time and headaches.
But your team can’t simply set up the software and then let it run on its own. You need resources to help unlock the full potential of each tool within your IAM software so you can stay proactive in managing data access.
For example, if you’re using BeyondTrust, your team should be using each tool to the best of its ability. Your IAM strategy should include a focus on password management. With the right BeyondTrust Password Safe experts, you can make the most of these capabilities to ensure your team members are effectively managing passwords for proper access control measures.
For most businesses, IAM is not a core competency related to their main line of business. So, not every company has dedicated in-house engineers who know how to implement their IAM platform. This often means that there is a significant need for ongoing education related to your system’s capabilities and how your suite of tools supports an effective identity management strategy.
Leading managed identity service providers can play a crucial role in closing the skills gap that exists within your organization. Your service provider can walk your team through each step of their implementation process, providing hands-on training while helping them troubleshoot specific issues as they arise.
Your relationship with your managed identity services partner should focus on team education. This way, your internal team can stay equipped with the knowledge and expertise they need to act as in-house engineers.
Many service partners document and centralize knowledge assets, such as training videos and how-to documentation, so you don’t need to worry when your internal team members leave or change positions. The information you need will be readily available so those skills can be continually developed as your team grows.
Every industry needs to follow some form of compliance regulations. These regulation are often detailed and complex. IT can take a significant amount of time to develop the knowledge you need to fully understand all of the compliance standards that your business needs to meet.
This is why several managed identity services partners provide compliance as a service. This framework often includes access review solutions and implementation services that relate to your access review program.
For example, tools like OpenText Identity Governance simplify the process for reviewers. Instead of manually exporting spreadsheets with user and access rights and reviewing them row by row, your access review software can automate this process of pulling and organizing access data.
The compliance as a service (CaaS) offering is the best solution for teams that want to gain peace of mind while stepping away from in-house compliance reviews entirely. Your partner can manage your access review software and help you maintain compliance so your internal team can focus on bigger projects that support the growth of your business.
Data breaches continue to plague businesses that fall victim to cybercrime. Regardless of how the breach occurs, the company will end up paying for it in a variety of ways.
While brand reputation always suffers following a breach, the financial burden is also significant. In fact, the average cost of a data breach in the U.S. reached $9.44 million in 2022. What’s staggering is that most of these breaches involve access management — 61 percent of all data breaches include stolen credentials.
However, with a trusted managed identity services partner, your team will have the structure, tools, and people in place to effectively secure your business assets. A good partner brings advanced levels of identity and access management expertise so your business can stay protected and mitigate any security risks and vulnerabilities.
When you’re looking to fully secure your business and streamline your operations, there are several types of services you can find that are related to identity management (IDM) and identity access management (IAM).
The most notable services to look for include the following:
When it comes to securing your business data and optimizing your operations, managed identity services are crucial. Your team needs a partner you can trust.
GCA is the top-rated IAM Professional Services partner, worldwide, on Gartner Peer Insights. Reviewers consistently praise our personal, customized, flexible, and detail-oriented services as well as the positive impact we’ve generated while saving them time and labor on IAM.