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Thinking about an Identity Solution? Here’s Where to Start. 

July 16, 2019
Today’s business environment is anything but simple. Employees demand more flexibility. They want to work whenever, wherever, from any device, using the apps and technology of their choice. Meanwhile, IT is challenged to manage a hybrid environment as work transitions to being partly or entirely in the cloud.  While providing employees with seamless access is difficult enough, increased cyberthreats require businesses to strengthen security across the entire organization.  The question is, how can IT protect the business from cyberattacks while facilitating an environment in which employees can quickly get access to the resources they need and do their best work? The answer: An identity solution.

What is an identity solution?

Ultimately, you need to securely connect your users – employees, contractors, partners – to the right technology at the right time. Building a unique “identity” for each user in your environment allows you to facilitate secure access and reliably prove it’s the right user, every time. Several data points can be leveraged to build an identity, from the user’s behavior and devices to the services they use and personal attributes.  An identity solution leverages technologies and policies to properly manage every user’s identity, gain greater visibility into what users are accessing across the organization, and enforce stronger control over that access. Of course, too much security can hurt employee productivity, but not enough can pose risks to the business. The key is to find the right balance between the two. An identity solution can incorporate Access technologies like Single Sign-On (SSO) and Enterprise Password Management (EPM). These technologies connect users to the right apps and services via passwords and other protocols like SAML 2.0. An identity solution may also incorporate Authentication technologies like Multifactor Authentication (MFA). MFA verifies and securely authorizes users as they request access to something, with options such as SMS codes, hardware keys, biometrics, or contextual methods.

An identity solution has far-reaching benefits

The ideal identity solution will give you:
  1. Visibility: Track user activities, generate reports on those activities, and gain a detailed understanding of what users are accessing and their security behaviors. 
  2. Control: Enforce policies that align with the business’ security goals and government regulations, and ensure access is appropriate to each user’s role. 
  3. Automation: Integrate with existing technologies and infrastructure to speed up deployment, simplify day-to-day management, and standardize user offboarding. 
  4. Unification: Bring access and authentication together in one solution that offers a complete view of every access point and user action. 
  5. Security: Impose role-based permissions so every user has the least-privileged access needed to do their job. Eliminate passwords, strengthen those that remain, and add protection with more authentication factors. 
  6. Efficiency: Remove password-related obstacles and give users a simplified, frictionless way to access the tools they need to do their work.

Download Identity 101

Ready to learn more? Download our eBook, Identity 101 for SMBs, for more information on how an identity solution can help your business. We explore how SSO, EPM, and MFA can work together to give you the most security and convenience. Plus, learn what to look for when evaluating options.