A Detailed Guide to Identity Management System

An identity management system, or identity access management system, is a set of systems or tools for cross-network or enterprise identity management.

According to a study by MarketsandMarkets, the global identity and access management (IAM) market size is likely to grow at a 14.5% CAGR between the years 2020 and 2025.

An identity management system gives IT managers the necessary tools and technologies to restrict user access to critical information in the organization. If you are looking for a detailed guide to how identity management systems work, what their features are, and why businesses need identity management, you’re in the right place. Let’s begin!

What is an Identity Management System?

An identity management system defines, manages, and grants access based on roles to a variety of on-premises and Cloud-based applications. In other words, it helps with managing individual identities, authenticating, and authorizing within or across the enterprise to increase security and productivity. This further helps decrease downtime, costs, and repetitive tasks.

Users can include customers, employees, and partners on devices such as computers, smartphones, routers, and controllers as well as servers and sensors. The core function of an identity management system is to allocate only one digital identity per person or item over the network. Once this digital identity has been created, it must be maintained, monitored, and modified accordingly throughout each user’s lifecycle.

Identity management solutions are used under the name of identity management while identity management itself falls under the broad category of IT security, information risk, and privacy.

Salient Features of Identity Management System

An identity management system is a powerful and valuable tool for information security. The process is too intricate to handle manually, so it is in the best interest of enterprises to seek solutions with advanced features designed to address today’s requirements.

Three Important Features of an Identity Management System

1. Equipped Well for Emerging Security Trends: Identity access management and cybersecurity trends are constantly evolving. As new devices appear on the market and users start to access systems in new and different ways, enterprises require an adaptable and more responsive identity management system. Flexibility is the key when choosing identity management software. IAM solutions must not only be equipped to handle the current tasks but also be adaptable to address future needs.

2. Compatibility and Integration: New identity management systems introduced in the enterprise must be tested to ensure compatibility and prevent potential problems that may arise due to inefficiency. Relevance is another important factor to be noted as identity management must do more than just support a specific type of login.

3. Perform Numerous Identification Operations: Multi-factor authorization is the most important and common approach to identity authentication, and may combine important features such as:

• Passwords
• Biometrics
• Email Links
• One Time Password

In networks that handle sensitive information, additional verification must be introduced for high-risk access requests.

In addition to the above-mentioned features, an identity management system should also have comprehensive analytics, incident alerts, response systems, and mobile-ready access control.

Six Reasons Businesses Need Identity Management Solutions

An identity management system is beneficial not only to IT and risk managers but also to a business as a whole. It provides

• An improved user experience
• The ability to reduce or eliminate passwords for sign-in
• Enhanced security
• Improved efficiency of security teams
• Improved regulatory compliance
• Reduced IT operating costs

With the increasing scope and complexity of data breaches, the demand for advanced identity management systems will continue to rise with steady growth in the industry