What is Azure Identity and Access Management? Why do Companies Need IAM?8 min read

To thrive in the digital age, businesses must make prudent technological investments. The workforce is utilising an increasing variety of workplace apps, necessitating the need for enterprises to control access appropriately across these platforms. This is where Identity and Access Management (IAM) enters the picture—but many businesses may be unsure where to begin. To start, we first need to understand about Identity and Access Management.

What is IAM and Why is it important?

Identity is the foundation for a major portion of security assurance. It provides access to cloud services based on identity verification and authorization rules, allowing for the protection of data and resources, as well as the determination of which requests should be authorised.

Identity and access management (IAM) is the public cloud’s perimeter security. It must be considered the bedrock of any secure and completely compliant public cloud architecture. Azure provides a complete collection of services, tools, and reference designs that enable companies to create highly secure, operationally efficient environments.

Identity and access management (IAM) enables the appropriate individuals and job responsibilities (identities) in your company to have access to the tools they require to do their tasks. Your organisation’s identity management and access management solutions enable you to control employee applications without checking in as an administrator to each app. Your organisation’s identity and access management systems enable it to handle a variety of identities, including those of people, software, and hardware such as robotics and Internet of Things devices.

The enterprise’s technology landscape is getting increasingly complicated and heterogeneous. IAM enables the appropriate persons to access the right resources at the right time and for the right reasons in order to manage compliance and security in this environment.

What IAM entails in terms of compliance?

IAM systems may help organisations maintain regulatory compliance by enabling the implementation of complete security, audit, and access controls. Numerous technologies now include elements that help assure an organization’s compliance.

Numerous countries compel businesses to take an interest in identity management. Organizations are held accountable for restricting access to consumer and employee information by regulations such as GDPR, and HIPAA. Organizations can use identity management systems to ensure compliance with such requirements.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes stringent security and access control requirements. GDPR requires enterprises to preserve the personal data and privacy of individuals and businesses in the European Union.  To comply with these rules, you must automate several parts of IAM and guarantee the compliance of your workflows, procedures, access permissions, and apps.

Which IAM terminology should you be familiar with?

While buzzwords come and go, the following concepts are critical to understand in the identity management space:

Access management: The methods and techniques used to regulate and monitor network access are referred to as access management. Access management capabilities like authentication, authorisation, trust, and security auditing are built-in to the best identity management systems for both on-premises and cloud-based deployments.

Microsoft developed Active Directory (AD) as a user-identity directory service for Windows domain networks. While AD is proprietary, it is included in Microsoft’s Windows Server operating system and therefore extensively used.

Biometric authentication is a secure method of user identification that is based on the person’s unique features. Fingerprint sensors, iris and retina scanning, and face recognition are all examples of biometric authentication technology.

Context-aware network access control is a policy-based approach to allowing access to network resources depending on the present context of the person requesting access. For instance, a user trying authentication from an IP address that has not been whitelisted will be denied.

A credential is a unique identification that a user uses to acquire network access, such as a password, a public key infrastructure (PKI) certificate, or biometric information (fingerprint, iris scan).

De-provisioning is the process of deleting an identity from an identity repository and revoking access entitlements.

The digital identification, which includes information about the user and his/her/its access credentials. (“Its” refers to the fact that an endpoint, such as a laptop or smartphone, may have its own digital identity.)

Entitlement: A collection of properties that define an authenticated security principal’s access rights and privileges.

Identity as a Service (IDaaS): A cloud-based IDaaS solution provides identity and access management capabilities to an organization’s on-premises and/or cloud-based systems.

Similar to access lifecycle management, the phrase “identity lifecycle management” refers to the whole set of procedures and techniques used to preserve and update digital identities. Identity lifecycle management includes the synchronisation, providing, and de-provisioning of identities, as well as the continuous management of user characteristics, credentials, and entitlements.

Synchronization of identities is the process of ensuring that various identity stores—for example, those acquired—contain consistent data for a particular digital ID.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol LDAP is an open standards-based protocol for maintaining and accessing a distributed directory service, such as Microsoft’s Active Directory.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is used when more than a single factor, such as a user name and password, is required for network or system authentication. At least one extra step is necessary, such as getting an SMS code on a smartphone, inserting a smart card or USB stick, or completing a biometric authentication requirement, such as a fingerprint scan.

Password Reset refers to a feature of an identity management system that enables users to re-establish their own passwords, relieving administrators of their duties and reducing support calls. The reset application is frequently used via a browser. To authenticate the user’s identity, the programme requests a secret word or a series of questions.

Privileged account management refers to the process of administering and auditing accounts and data access depending on the user’s privileges. In general, a privileged user has been allowed administrative access to systems as a result of his or her employment or role. For example, a privileged user would be able to create and delete user accounts and roles. Provisioning is the process of generating identities, specifying their access permissions, and registering them in an identity repository.

Risk-based authentication (RBA): Risk-based authentication dynamically modifies authentication criteria in response to the user’s current condition. For instance, when users seek to authenticate from a geographic area or IP address with which they are not previously linked, they may be subject to extra authentication procedures.

A security principal is a digital identity that consists of one or more credentials that may be used to authenticate and authorise network interactions.

Single sign-on (SSO): A method of controlling access to several linked but distinct systems. A user can log in to a system or systems with a single username and password.

User behaviour analytics (UBA): UBA systems evaluate user activity patterns and use algorithms and analysis automatically to identify significant abnormalities that may signal possible security concerns. UBA is distinct from other security systems that are primarily concerned with tracking devices or security incidents. UBA is occasionally combined with entity behaviour analytics and referred to as UEBA.

Platingnum’s Azure Identity and Access Management Approach

Azure Identity Access Management from Platingnum is a cloud-based solution based on Microsoft Active Directory that stores and maintains user identities while authenticating and authorising access to business resources. We’ve paired the service with our own consulting experience to give our clients a smooth on-ramp to cloud-based IAM.

Significant characteristics

Identity is critical in the cloud, much more so when employees access data remotely. Platingnum’s Azure identity management services leverage Microsoft’s industry-leading Active Directory service to store and reference identity information, ensuring that only the appropriate individuals have access.

Amplification of authentication
Azure IAM offers a number of cloud-based authentication techniques. includes the use of hardware security keys, Microsoft Authenticator, and Windows Hello biometrics.

Extremely scalable
Cloud-based identity and access management is scalable to meet any demand, from a few small company users to thousands of workers.

Integration with Office 365
Numerous Azure customers store sensitive data and communications in Office 365. Due to the fact that Microsoft developed the Azure cloud infrastructure, the identity and access management solution, and Office 365, everything functions in unison.

Authenticate at all times

With Azure Identity and Access Management’s hybrid support, Azure clients can secure their users while they access apps in the cloud or on-premises.

Competence in consultation

Platingnum’s specialists will conduct a session with you to assist you in selecting the optimal setup and features for their business.

Hybrid capable

Platingnum assists clients in synchronising their on-premises Active Directory deployments with the Azure directory, resulting in a seamless integration of cloud and on-premises security.

Your advantages

Platingnum‘s Azure Identity and Access Management protects its clients from account hijacking, one of the most serious current cybersecurity threats. An attacker who gets access to critical cloud-based apps has the potential to cause significant harm to a business. Microsoft’s technology protects employee identities and manages their access, ensuring that only the appropriate individuals have access. It provides several significant benefits to organisations:

Secured SSO 

You don’t need to memorise an extensive array of usernames and passwords. Single sign-on refers to the concept of granting users access to all the apps they require with a single login. We will provide you with the finest consultation and help possible.

Consistent protection

A single user directory enables businesses to systematically implement regulations for their workers, eliminating security and access gaps caused by human error.

Multiple layers of protection

Microsoft access controls give an additional layer of security in addition to passwords. MFA utilises additional information like hardware devices or biometrics.

Contact us to get the best consulting services with Platingnum’s experts.