Identity and Access Management (IAM), or what is the same, identity and access management, is a generic term for the internal processes of an organization that focus on managing user accounts and corporate network resources, including rights access for organizations, users, applications and systems.
It includes functions to manage the identity of a user on the network, and serves mainly to authenticate users, thus guaranteeing the rights requested by them.
Identity management: what you need to know
Identity management is a broad administration domain related to the identification of individuals within a system (country, network and company) and the control of their access to the resources available within this system.
At the most basic level, identity management involves defining what users can do within the network, with what devices, and under what circumstances.
“In a business context, identity management is intended to improve security and productivity while reducing costs and redundant tasks.”
In the digital world, our identities take the form of attributes and entries in a database. The trend of online services is to collect these attributes to provide us with a better service or create a unique user experience from the data collected in our static and dynamic attributes.
Your online identity is created when you register with some system. During registration, certain attributes are collected (email, phone number, social security, and others) and stored in the database. The registration process may vary depending on the type of digital identity you submit.
-Do not miss: The solution for identity management and access control-
For a government-issued electronic identity, the procedure is exhaustive, while registration on social networking sites can be done with completely fictitious (and therefore unverified) identity attributes.
Identity management is primarily a question of attribute management. You, your line manager, your human resources manager, your IT administrator, your e-commerce site’s customer advisor, and many others may be responsible for creating, updating, or even deleting the attributes that apply to you.
Subsequently, access management is carried out, once the user’s identity has been established. After authentication, a decision must be made at the access control level. The decision is based on the information available about the user. This is where attributes come into play.
If the authentication process can pass the set of necessary attributes to the access control decision point, the process can evaluate the attributes and decide whether access is allowed or not.
-Why should you use Identity Server to achieve adaptive authentication?-
Authentication and user access rights on the network are key elements of identity and access management. IAM software is equipped with features that allow the user to simplify all procedures related to these processes. Such features include:
Automatic provisioning of user accounts
Workflow management and self-service
Password management
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Role Based Access Control (RBAC) / Access Governance
Audit and Compliance
Benefits Identity and Access Management
Access and identity management is useful in many aspects: it ensures regulatory compliance, it favors cost savings and it simplifies the lives of your clients, due to the improvement of their experience.
These are the main benefits of having an IAM solution:
Easy access anywhere
People today need their identities all the time to use services and resources. In that sense, they require unlimited access to any platform using their IDs, thereby removing barriers for customers to enter the platform anytime, anywhere.
It favors the connection between the different parts
The digital transformation that is taking place among more and more organizations, forces the need for people, applications and devices to stay connected with each other. And, unsurprisingly, all of these processes bring with them some security threats.
However, IAM is a solution that ensures correct administration with the best identity providers, such as Salesforce, Twitter and Google. Authentication and security are two of Identity and Access Management’s strengths, as well as being extensible and ready for future developments.
-Keep reading: How to build your access control and identity management strategy-
improve productivity
IAM automates the entry of new personnel and provides access to all the components of the system with which the company works. This allows to reduce times in the delivery of access so that they begin to produce immediately.
For this reason, business agility is also increased by using the advantages that technology makes available to meet the demands of today’s world. Your application translates into greater business success!
Optimize the user experience
Remembering so many usernames and passwords to access social networks, banks and other Internet services becomes a challenge for people. With IAM you get an identity that provides access to different systems.
Single sign-on (SSO) allows customers and partners to log in to different internal and external applications with the same access method. That way the user experience will not be affected.
-Discover how CIAM can help you improve your customers’ experience-
Secure your brand at all levels with identity and access management
There will be no risk of a security breach, regardless of whether a connection is made from multiple identity providers.
Identity and Access Management enables strong authentication to keep your business and brand very secure.
A detailed verification of all the identities that enter the system is carried out, in addition to allowing the granting of various licenses to limit access levels. At the same time, it performs monitoring through analysis, fraud detection and alert functions that indicate a possible real risk.
Ultimately, IAM is a trusted system that uses technology to support digital transformation. A software that provides agility, security and satisfaction to the company’s customers.
If you want to check it, ask our consultants for advice and get started with your project.
