Benefits of Identity and Access Management – Data Protection in Dynamic Environment

The geographical boundaries have today become non-existent across enterprises with the advancement in technology. Enterprises while being spread globally are all connected in the virtual world. The technological enhancements and innovations have further resulted in ease of access to the information in the network which has also facilitated the collection and availability of data in real time irrespective of the locations of the enterprise in the global arena. However, such anytime anywhere access to critical data also challenges the enterprises with risks pertaining to data security and protection.

The users accessing the corporate network for data and various applications consist of employees, vendors, support providers, auditors, and ancillaries. These diverse groups of personnel being from both within and outside the organization, the digital data transfers have paved the way for growth of cyber crimes leading to loss of vital data, loyal customers and profit margins. The complexity of the digital world therefore demands enterprises to manage these risks efficiently. This includes identification of individuals accessing the data, and complying with regulations while enabling provisioning and de-provisioning of users. A clear understanding of the benefits of identity and access management will help enterprises to work through solutions that can provide them with flexibility to meet the dynamic enterprise environment while managing risk. Identity and access management thus has become an issue of prime importance in the competitive world.

The advent of mobile and cloud technologies has facilitated the distantly located and mobile workforce to access the corporate network and their workstations from smartphones and other new-age handheld devices. This has also brought in challenges for the enterprises with issues related to security and protection of data. Restricting the accessibility will help enterprises to classify the users based on the information that each of them has an access to. Identity and access management allows business enterprises to collaborate with partners and customers to move seamlessly through various applications used across the business environment. The leading service providers of information system risk management framework offer enterprises an end-to-end identity and access management solution which includes strategy and design, planning, implementation and sustenance. The benefits of identity and access management are that it enables enterprises to manage the identity's life cycle through various applications by integrating processes and technologies with the organizational structure. By focusing on authentication and authorization, the IAM solutions ensure that the users maintain the regulatory compliance standards of SOX, GLBA and HIPAA. Such systems will help enterprises to work on productivity losses, cost-savings, security and controlling of rogue user accounts. Identity and access management road-map benefits enterprises through its sound strategies and design. Besides consolidating identity data sources, this also evaluates the data and roles for providing access privileges leading to reduced technology implementation risks and overall costs.

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