The 4 Key Qualities of A Trusted Identity and Access Management Platform

Why do you need a trusted platform experience for identity and access management?

There are different ways to implement a successful identity and access management program in place. You could build your own systems — the right choice if you happen to have a lot of bored programmers on staff with nothing to do. Or you could take the “Frankenstein’s monster” approach — bolt together a variety of solutions from different providers and hope it all works peacefully.

The trusted platform experience is a much better solution for four reasons. First, your staff only need to learn one suite of solutions. Second, you reduce the chances of tools failing to integrate together successfully. Third, you need to monitor each stage of user activity successfully. Finally, you gain seamless control over internal systems and the cloud systems you depend on each day. Let’s take a closer look at each factor.

1) Ease of Administration for IT Staff

Your IT staff are probably overworked. Depending on your company size and complexity, you may not have a dedicated identity and access management team. Asking staff to learn how to use half a dozen different identity management tools is asking for trouble. It is like switching between using regular and power tools each day. Right as you get comfortable with one tool, you’re suddenly using a different one. You can avoid this stress by choosing a comprehensive identity and access management solution.

Tip: In a crisis, such as responding to a security breach, ease of administration is critically important. You need to be able to solve problems quickly, not waste energy reconciling why the total number of users in systems A and B are different.

2) Eliminate Integration Problems Between Competing Tools

When you use Avatier to build your trusted platform for identity and access management, integration problems are no longer an issue. All of Avatier’s products are designed to work together from day one. In the morning, you could check the compliance status with Compliance Auditor. In the afternoon, you forget your password and use Apollo to get a password reset. All of these actions are tracked through the Avatier platform.

There’s no need for manual tracking in spreadsheets or using unreliable workarounds to keep different products working together.

3) Comprehensive Lifecycle Management of Identity and Access

Your identity and access management program will fail without reliable lifecycle coverage. The reason is simple. User needs change over time. People change jobs. New applications come in. All of these situations mean that a “one and done” approach to identity management will not work.

In order to have a trusted experience for identity and access management, you need a lifecycle approach. In simple terms, that means monitoring and controlling user accounts from creation to termination. Neglecting accounts at the end of their lifecycle is such a significant problem that we published an article on it: Stopping Inactive User Account Risk Fast.

4) Achieve Comprehensive Protection For Your Entire Platform

In the past, protecting internal applications was enough. All of your company data was held on site. That’s not our world any longer. Instead, your employees are using cloud applications to get new features. IT often encourages moving to the cloud as well because it means lower costs in many cases.

However, moving your data and applications to the cloud does not eliminate your need for oversight. You still need to implement identity and access management protection to protect your assets in the cloud. A trusted platform experience needs to be able to preserve on-premise traditional assets and SaaS assets.

Enhancing Your Trusted Platform Experience With Ongoing Management

Choosing the right software solution for identity and access management is half the battle. However, a system — even a trusted platform — will not succeed unless it is supported by continuous management. Fortunately, repetitive activities like password resets and new user setups will be handled by the system. That means you have more capacity for other efforts. Here are some of the most important practices to sustain a robust identity and access management platform.

1) Technology Project Management

When your company implements a new technology, it needs to be covered by your identity and access management solution. The best time to plan for this coverage is during the project implementation. By implementing access and identity management right way, you will avoid creating any security gaps.

2) Company Organization Changes

People — and the user accounts they need to get their done — is a significant part of successful identity and access management. That’s why we suggest that IT engage the human resources department to understand substantial organizational changes. For example, acquiring another company will mean new users and technologies to be integrated into your trusted platform. Besides, expansion efforts like opening a new office or division may require some additional set-up support.

3) Employee Training For Managers And New Hires

Along with other topics like password management, include coverage of identity and access management for new hires. As a best practice, we suggest creating a sperate training session aimed at managers. Guide them on the role they play in offboarding users, removing inactive users, and escalating issues to IT. The IT department has the technical expertise, but managers are experts in what access and accounts people need to get their jobs done.

4) Identity and Access Management Monitoring

Create a simple dashboard that shows the state of your IT security program. This dashboard may include indicators on the number of password resets, multi-factor authentication usage, and inactive users. Monitoring these kinds of indicators monthly will give you early warning if your trusted platform needs a tune-up.

Get Started With Your Trusted Platform Experience For Identity and Access Management

You’ve learned about the benefits of a trusted platform. It’s easier for your staff to manage. A stable platform is also better in a security crisis. Your next step is simple: ask yourself if your current software suite is up to the challenge. If it is, focus your efforts on improving your supporting management habits.