Identity management is key to ensure trust, privacy, and security as well as to facilitate collaboration and improve analytics.
– William Crowell
Former Deputy Director, National Security Agency (NSA)
Board Member
As organizations are expanding and remote work becomes a normal way of life, it is important to understand Identity and Access Management (IAM) needs and implement the required IAM solutions to reduce security threats.
Major reasons for identity related data breaches may include having an ineffective IAM program or not having one at all. A recent poll survey campaign conducted by Templar Shield shows that while most organizations have implemented an effective Identity and Access Management program, there is still a sizeable portion of organizations accounting for 25% that say they do not have an IAM program.
Also, as per a recent study by Gartner, it was discovered that 67% of respondents are aware of their identity challenges but are unsure of how to fully address it. Although 58% of respondents deemed identity management to be of utmost importance, 61% of respondents said that their company believes identity management is too time- and money-consuming to manage effectively on a continuous basis.
The importance of IAM is recognized by businesses worldwide. But while the technology is being widely adopted today, implementation has always been difficult and complex, and unfortunately remains so.
In essence, IAM thrives on striking a balance between user experience and data security. There is a greater need for reliable identity and access management solutions as systems, users, and data volumes increase. Because of their extensive trail of implementation complexities, traditional IAM products, which are intended to improve an organization’s productivity and security, have instead turned into a complicated problem for organizations.
Identity and Access Management implementations take a long time to complete (usually around 6-18 months) and often do not produce results that were promised. The complexity eventually causes the entire implementation to fail by falling short of expectations of the stakeholder executive committee.
IAM solutions have always been expensive because they have complex workflows that require an expert to carry out. If proper analysis is not conducted beforehand, these challenges can also have an impact on the schedule and budget.
Major Causes of implementation failure:
Based on experience, Templar Shield has identified a variety of factors that can contribute to the failure of an Identity and Access Management Implementation:
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- Lack of clear objectives – one of the first challenges that c-suite executives face is defining clear objectives. It becomes important to understand what your IAM requirements are for a successful and less complex implementation process. Common questions that must be asked as the first step may include:
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- What issue are we trying to address?
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- Do we want to work on improving user experience?
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- Do we require stringent privacy policies or self-service functionality to request and revoke access?
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- Create a long-term roadmap – a successful implementation requires a long-term program which is aligned with the goals of the organization, has several phases and proper governance. It will also reveal gaps in the implementation plan. Stick to the roadmap as much as possible, but leave a little room for flexibility, as market conditions and business strategy may change.
Every organization requires an IAM solution on some level. Part of thorough planning for a successful and efficient IAM implementation is understanding associated pitfalls and knowing how to avoid them.
To know more about Identity and Access Management implementation, contact our experts at Templar Shield – info@templarshield.com
References:
About the Author:
Kanika Anand is an IGA Consultant at Templar Shield. She works with clients to understand their requirements and build roadmaps for effective IAM/ IGA program implementation.
For more information, please reach out to: kanika.anand@templarshield.com
