When it comes to managing the identity and access of users, Active Directory leaves a few gaps. These gaps can impact everything from user productivity to corporate security. This is where third-party identity and access management (IAM) tools come into play. IAM solutions are designed to provide you with centralized visibility and control, allowing you to actively measure and monitor the inherent risks in the system responsible for matching users and resources. IAM solutions offer advanced capabilities that increase both security and employee productivity.
Although the scope and delivery for each IAM product will vary, here are a few points worth considering when it comes to choosing an IAM solution.
User self-service
Active Directory doesn’t offer a way for users to perform password-related tasks on their own, and we all know that password-related issues are the main source of help desk calls for any enterprise. A comprehensive IAM solution can address this problem by offering users the power to securely reset their own passwords and unlock their accounts without depending on the help desk. With the right IAM tool, users can update their attributes and manage group memberships as well.
Automation
Whatever the size of your organization, there are numerous ways to tackle the challenges involved in managing users throughout their corporate tenure. Whether it be user provisioning, group modifications, or Active Directory cleanup, repetitive tasks like these can be automated. You can define and review the automated process at anytime to ensure the results are what you’re looking for. Automation guarantees better accuracy and security—not to mention it saves a significant amount of time and money.
Enhancing and enforcing policies
Simply enforcing complex passwords and requiring that users change their passwords frequently is insufficient on its own. A reliable IAM solution should do two things: First, it should allow you to create custom password policies and apply them to specific groups of users. Second, it should equip your IT team with complete control over which corporate applications employees can access. With the right IAM solution, you should be able to disable certain features or even make web applications read-only. These solutions will increase the security of your organization without limiting the flexibility of your workforce.
Reporting and auditing
With compliance being a major concern for many businesses, the right IAM solution will maintain a proper audit trail. Advanced IAM solutions allow IT teams to monitor specific features within applications, send alerts for unusual activity, and capture screenshots when certain online behaviors occur. This provides evidence of exactly what each user is doing.
A comprehensive IAM tool offers solutions catering to user self-service, automation, policy enhancement and enforcement, and reporting and auditing. AD360 is an IAM solution providing all of these features to simplify your IT environment.
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