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The IT landscape is becoming more complex each day. There have never been so many IT resources that a single user needs access to, and what’s available in terms of web apps and cloud infrastructure can be overwhelming.
Because a user’s identity is a key to so many company assets these days, it has also never been more important to use an identity management tool to ensure that only the right people are accessing IT resources and the wrong people are kept out.
Identity and access management (IAM) solutions are a critical infrastructure component that assist IT organizations in securing their environment. However, there is tremendous opportunity to innovate IAM platforms and deliver even more benefit to IT organizations.
In fact, the identity management tool, JumpCloud Directory-as-a-Service, is changing the way that IT admins are viewing the category.
Why is there a need to overhaul IAM platforms? Well, to answer that question, we need to take a look at how the IT landscape has developed over the last two decades.
Identity Management Began with Microsoft
The IAM world has historically been dominated by one identity management tool, Microsoft Active Directory (AD). This made a great deal of sense because of the IT environment, which started out with Windows® being the go-to OS and application development platform. Then, solutions such as Office® and Windows Server® further entrenched Microsoft in the enterprise.
The result was that Microsoft leveraged their dominance to build IT management tools such as AD and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). These Windows focused IT management tools made it much easier to manage and run a Windows environment. This made it more likely that IT organizations would mandate Windows solutions because they could be managed easier. So, this produced a norm where an IT network was dominated by Microsoft solutions that were efficiently and securely managed by IT. For a time, AD was the perfect identity management too. However, the IT landscape is not known for remaining stagnant.
Modern IT Resources Have Impacted Microsoft’s Effectiveness
New IT solutions started to emerge, and they put pressure on Active Directory as the core identity provider. Web applications, cloud infrastructure from AWS®, Mac and Linux systems, and other IT resources were all difficult for AD and SCCM to manage. The result was that IT started to have a difficult time keeping the network secure, and identity management became cumbersome.
The good news is that there is a next generation identity management tool that is providing secure and efficient access control in heterogeneous IT environments. Called JumpCloud Directory-as-a-Service, this modern cloud identity management solution is securely managing and connecting users to the IT resources they need including systems, applications, files, and networks.
JumpCloud – A Comprehensive Identity Management Tool
JumpCloud connects with Mac, Linux, and Windows systems, legacy and web-based applications, physical and virtual file storage (like Box™, Dropbox™, Samba, and NAS appliances), and wired and WiFi networks. Using this identity management tool, IT admins can centralize and securely control access to virtually all of their IT resources from one pane of glass. Also, JumpCloud offers identity security features like Password Complexity Management and Multi-Factor Authentication.
Because a user’s single identity is connected to all of their IT resources, provisioning and deprovisioning user access is efficient and precise. When it’s time to onboard or offboard a user, it just takes a few clicks, and you can be certain that a user no longer has access to company digital assets.
By leveraging JumpCloud, you’ll be able to maintain security and widespread visibility over your heterogeneous IT environment without losing efficiency.
Find Out More about JumpCloud’s Identity Management Tool
Read the EdgeConneX case study to learn more about how JumpCloud can optimize user and system management in a modern IT environment and help IT admins increase security. If you’re ready to start testing JumpCloud Directory-as-a-Service, sign up for a free account. The whole platform is available for you to test, and your first ten users are free forever. Not quite ready to get so hands on? Sign up for a demo, and one our JumpCloud team members will walk you through the platform. You are also more than welcome to obtain more information by reaching out to us. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.
