Cloud-native enterprises are constantly upgrading their digital infrastructure. However, a major challenge is to upgrade their cloud-based identity security. The most popular solution is Identity as a service or IDaaS. It is a cloud-based application delivery model (similar to SaaS) that provides identity and access management in the form of cloud-based services. It provides a comprehensive and customizable process for growing organizations to manage the identities of their employees and all relevant stakeholders.
Let’s explore the importance of IDaaS and identity management, its origin, and why it has become an indispensable tool for modern enterprises.
The origin of IDaaS – a brief history
It was 2010, also known as “The Decade Of Disruption”, when cloud based technologies started growing rapidly and companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenStack had all launched their cloud divisions. Eventually, identity management as a service gained momentum with the emergence of IAM providers like Okta and OneLogin around this time. The term “IDaaS” and cloud-based identity service solutions started making their mark on the market.
Slowly, IDaaS in cloud computing became a $3.99 billion market size in 2021, and it is expected to grow to be a $21.4 billion market by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25%.
Identity management & IDaaS – Which is which?
C-level tech executives should choose IDaaS for their cloud-native environments as it can meet all their organization’s identity and access management (IAM) needs. In a nutshell, identity management as a service is a SaaS product which is any software, policies, procedures, and platforms that can monitor & manage how identities access cloud resources & the level of permissions that are applicable to them for enhanced identity and access management. IDaaS strictly adheres to IAM policies to ensure compliance and security standards for your organization.
Five benefits of IDaaS – What makes it ideal for Identity Management
So why should you choose IDaaS? Here are some of the reasons:
- Scalability & flexibility: IDaaS solutions can be scaled according to the needs of growing enterprises as they are cloud-based and can be scaled to handle any number of users or devices without significant physical infrastructure changes.
- Cost-effectiveness: Identity service software can be more cost-effective than traditional on-premise solutions. This is because they require less upfront investment to get started, and minimal talent and resources to manage them.
- Regulatory compliance: Cloud-native enterprises have strict regulatory requirements in the context of data privacy and security. Identity service can deliver automated compliance that meets the modern regulatory standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. They are also more nimble, and can be updated more frequently.
- Integration: IDaaS solutions are compatible with most cloud-based services & SaaS applications and can integrate with them easily. This creates a more streamlined path to identity management.
- Threat detection: With advanced security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and real-time monitoring, IDaaS enhances your infrastructure security and acts as a preventive force against security threats and potential data breaches.
Examples of IDaaS – know what they do
Confused about which IDaaS you should use? Here are a few popular examples:
Single Sign-On (SSO): This type of IDaaS enables all employees, clients and subsequent stakeholders to authenticate once to access all enterprise apps with a single login. This can only be done by using dedicated credentials via Single Sign-On and removes the need to repeatedly log in to individual applications separately.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): MFA applies an additional layer of security by mandating users to undergo multiple forms of authentication i.e. a password and a biometric fingerprint or facial recognition. This feature helps prevent unauthorized access and secure themselves against data breaches.
User provisioning & deprovisioning: IDaaS solutions automatically provision and deprovision access rights based on the role in the organization. If an employee or client exits the organization, the access rights are automatically revoked and removed completely. This helps reduce the chances of orphan accounts while ensuring compliance according to security guidelines.
Non-human identities management: The term ‘non-human identities’ refers to access keys, tokens, API keys, and security certificates that usually control access to an application or workload. In cloud-native systems, applications and services talk to each other using NHIs. These NHIs are critical to the security posture of the entire cloud-native system and need to be secured with a purpose-built solution. WIth Entro’s unique NHI management solution, all NHIs are secured end-to-end to prevent data breaches or compromises with non-human identities.
Conclusion
Entro offers a comprehensive solution for detecting, safeguarding, and protecting non-human identities across various platforms, including vaults, code repositories, and collaboration tools. Entro alerts you to IAM violations and suspicious activity, so you’re never caught by surprise when secret misuse does inevitably occur. Identity management is a reality for cloud-native organizations today, it is essential to choose the right IDaaS solution to not only secure your business in the long run, but also effectively secure non-human identities.