A significant issue for modern organizations is the management of internal user identities. These identities are important for tasks such as providing access to the internal network and applications, third-party and web-based applications, and the server infrastructure whether hosted on-premise or in the cloud. That’s all in addition to a user’s laptop or desktop. A significant driver for the complexity with identity management is the move to cloud infrastructure.
Identity and access control is growing more complex by the day. With the introduction of G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps)/ Microsoft Office 365, SaaS-based applications, and cloud-based infrastructure IT administrators have interesting challenges they need to meet. These challenges include the proliferation of device types and platforms, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android).
Specifically, the problems that IT admins need to solve with their user directory structure include:
Device Support
No longer is a Microsoft Windows desktop the standard device for an employee. In today’s Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture, every employee has a personal laptop, tablet, or mobile device — and they want each one to connect to their corporate identity. Those machines are running macOS and Linux with increased frequency.
Synchronization of User Identities Across Services
Users no longer accept that they need different logins for each of their corporate services. IT admins need to figure out a way for their users to leverage internal or third-party corporate identities across services. But with such a wide range of various “types” of services, protocols, and security challenges, that’s no easy feat.
Security
The number one IT security risk to an organization is the compromise of one of their employee’s credentials, and the scope of that risk has never been greater. IT admins need to ensure that employees have immediate access to cloud applications, internal services, and cloud-based server infrastructure while keeping hackers out. How do you ensure that all of that is secure, and have the ability to know when a user’s identity has been compromised? This is a critical issue for every IT admin.
Management
IT admins have more responsibility than ever before. IT is critical to making any enterprise work these days. Businesses rely on email, applications, cloud-based infrastructure, and a multitude of devices to get their jobs done. What’s the one central, common requirement for all of those services? It’s a secure, robust identity management platform.
As organizations figure out how to leverage cloud infrastructure, heterogeneous environments, and Web-based apps, a drive to change their directory services will occur. A traditional on-premises directory isn’t going to work. As a result, this new category of Directory-as-a-Service® will have to rise to the occasion.
Learn More About Identity-as-a-Service
If you would like to learn more about how you can leverage a modern Identity-as-a-Service platform, drop us a note. Additionally, JumpCloud® invites you to give our unified cloud directory service a try. Your first 10 users are free forever.
