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There’s a new market in the identity and access management space. It’s called cloud identity and access management. All that changed was the word ‘cloud’ was added, so it seems like that’s not really much of a difference – especially since most vendors in the IAM space probably just threw their solutions up in the cloud and called themselves a cloud identity and access management vendor.
Unfortunately, that confusion and masking belie the true value of delivering identity management from the cloud. A true Cloud IAM solution is not only hosted on the cloud, but there also should be a large number of changes to the next generation of IAM solutions.
Let’s face it: an organization’s IT infrastructure wasn’t what it was two decades ago or even one decade ago. How IT is leveraged and run in an organization is completely different.
Microsoft Clouded The View of Identity and Access Management
The identity management market emerged in earnest in the late 1990s and early 2000s. IT admins realized that with more users leveraging the network and IT resources, they needed to have more control over users. In addition, they needed easier ways to onboard and offboard them from the network and grant access to applications and systems. For the most part, identity and access management in the early 2000s meant Microsoft Active Directory®. Since Microsoft was the dominant operating system provider, it ended up leveraging that position to be the directory services leader.
Modern Organizations See Their Needs Clearly
Today, the IT landscape is far different. One in five devices is Windows [Forbes]. Data centers are no longer being built. Instead, AWS is the market share leader for hosting services. Web applications are the new norm. Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 are the productivity platforms of choice. The results are significant. Less of an organization’s infrastructure is on-prem. Security is a far more serious topic and mobility and productivity are critical. The efficiency of operations for IT and end users is important. Organizations are far more aggressive about using IT as a competitive advantage.
A key part of the process to focus on core competencies at an organization is to offload as much as possible. Cloud identity and access management platforms are an opportunity to do that.
However, those solutions must match what an organization’s IT infrastructure looks like. IAM solutions from yesteryear, such as Active Directory and OpenLDAP, have struggled to make the leap to the cloud. Conversely, cloud-native identity management solutions such as Directory-as-a-Service® are built from the ground up for modern, cloud-forward organizations.
Next Generation IAM Solutions: Straight Shot to The Cloud
Directory-as-a-Service securely manages and connects user identities to the IT resources that they need. Those IT resources can include systems, applications, infrastructure, and networks. In fact, as a cloud identity and access management platform, it includes a centralized user management system, hosted LDAP, cloud RADIUS, True Single Sign-On™, device management, multi-factor authentication, and more. It is the central identity management solution for an organization.
Directory-as-a-Service as Cloud Identity and Access Management
If you would like to learn more about how Directory-as-a-Service can be your cloud identity and access management solution, drop us a note. Finally, please sign up for a free account. Your first 10 users are free forever.
