IAM – Identity & Access Management

IAM has become vital due to the increasing complexity of IT environments, hybrid working and regulatory landscapes. We guide organizations through the labyrinth of IAM in an end-to-end model, ensuring that the foundational principles of a well-architected IAM system are not only understood but also effectively executed and maintained.

What is IAM?

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is an essential framework that ensures the right individuals have access to the right resources at the right time for the right reasons. By centralizing the authentication and authorization processes, an IAM framework streamlines the management of user identities, roles, and permissions, thereby mitigating cybersecurity risks.

The IAM framework

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) framework is a set of policies, processes, and technology whereby we can distinguish 3 technical domains.

Access Management

This domain encompasses the mechanisms and policies that control access to IT resources. Through the implementation of single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), Desktop SSO, Contextual Device data and conditional access policies, organizations can achieve a balance between security and user convenience.

Identity Governance

IGA forms the backbone of IAM, focusing on the lifecycle management of digital identities and ensuring compliance with internal policies and external regulations. By auto-
mating and streamlining identity-related processes, IGA enhances operational efficiency and mitigates the risk of unauthorized access.

Privileged Access

Privileged Access Management (PAM) deals with the oversight and control of privileged accounts, which hold elevated access to systems and data. By securing these high-risk accounts, companies can significantly reduce their vulnerability to insider threats and external attacks, thereby protecting their most sensitive information.

Who is it for?

Companies facing challenges in efficiently managing user access rights, integrating diverse systems and applications, both cloud-based and on-premises, while also complying with evolving regulatory requirements.

Get a unified overview

Understanding individual app usage & related users is challenging for companies relying on manual processes & basic IAM solutions. Establish a single source of truth with centralized visibility & reporting.

Regulatory Compliance

Staying compliant with evolving regulations requires continuous monitoring and reporting. IAM frameworks equipped with comprehensive audit trails and policy enforcement capabilities, can streamline compliance processes.

Complex Access Control

Managing access gets tricky as companies use a mix of on-premise systems, cloud services, and private apps. The key is an IAM solution that connects everything, whether it’s in the cloud or on the ground, ensuring secure and efficient access.

Credential Sprawl

This happens when people have too many passwords and accounts to keep track of because they use lots of different online services at work. This makes it easier for hackers to get in and harder for the company to keep things secure.

Manual Identity Lifecycle

Manual IAM processes are prone to errors and inefficiencies. Automating identity lifecycle management through IAM can ensure timely provisioning and deprovisioning of access, improving both security and productivity.

Phishing/Credential Theft

Phishing attacks and credential theft are frequent methods used by attackers to gain unauthorized access. Deploying SSO, MFA and risk-based authentication strategies as part of an IAM framework form a protection to those type of attacks.

Why most fall short

While many cloud infrastructure vendors offer IAM tools as part of their platform offerings, these solutions often lack the comprehensive capabilities needed to address the diverse identity management needs of modern businesses. Here’s why.

Lack of Convergence

The IAM tool provided by your cloud infrastructure vendor may focus solely on managing access to their own services or a limited set of integrated SaaS apps, leading to siloed identity management and limited interoperability with other platforms and applications.

Limited Security Features

Most solutions offer basic authentication and authorization functionalities but lack both advanced security features and ability to tackle complex enterprise scenarios. Features such as continuous threat protection, passwordless options, risk-based authentication, and adaptive access controls elevate your security game whilst making the workforce’s life easier.

Vendor Lock-in

Relying solely on your cloud infrastructure vendor’s IAM tool can result in vendor lock-in. Upright Security chose to step away from these solutions and focus on working with technical solution leaders within the IAM space. We typically see vendor lock-in limit organisations’ flexibility to integrate with future technology providers and adapt to changing business requirements.

“As a smaller company, we are always looking for partners who think along with us about what is best for our context. Upright Security has fulfilled this excellently with a transparent, personal, no-nonsense approach. As a result, we were able to implement a IAM solution that perfectly fits our needs.”

Tim Hulhoven
IT Lead @ Renta Solutions

The leader in IAM: Okta

Five years ago, Upright Security chose Okta for its robust, cloud-first approach to identity and access management, recognizing the potential to enhance security while simplifying user experiences across companies’ diverse IT environments. Being recognised as the EMEA Partner of the Year, our partnership has been a great success.

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