As a critical component of the security infrastructure, identity & access management solutions have long been operated exclusively on-premises. However, many IT teams quickly realized that IAM is not without its challenges: long start-up times, complex integrations and extensive support drove up the costs and the time required, and requirements for regional distribution or short-term scaling in the event of load peaks could only be met with difficulty. So, it’s no wonder that with the triumph of the cloud, more and more companies are opting for IDaaS models.
IDaaS stands for Identity-as-a-Service and describes fully managed services in which companies completely outsource their IAM to an external service partner Partner (Managed Services Provider, MSP). The major IAM providers usually act as providers: ForgeRock, Ping Identity, One Identity, Okta, Omada, SailPoint, Saviynt and many others now have standardized IDaaS services in their portfolio and provide them to customers worldwide via multi-tenant cloud instances. In this way, companies can securely manage the identities of customers, employees and partners – often including single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA) and seamless application integration, and, above all, without having to set up their own IAM architecture.
This outsourcing offers companies several advantages:
Relief of the team
First, the change to a managed services model means a lot of work relief for companies, as they no longer have to worry about maintaining and operating the IAM systems themselves and do not have to maintain in-depth internal know-how. For the IT and security teams, which are already often overloaded, this is probably the biggest plus.
OpEx instead of CapEx
There are also solid economic reasons: Those who determine for managed services convert high one-off investments into manageable monthly operating expenses. This saves equity, creates scope for further investments, lowers the TCO and sets the course for a quick return on investment.
High security and service quality
Also, regarding service quality, reliability and security, there are many arguments in favor of outsourcing: After all, the manufacturer knows the software like no other. As a rule, hosting is provided by the well-known hyperscalers Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google GCP – via state-of-the-art data centres and security infrastructures that are precisely optimized for the operation and maintenance of the IAM platform. In addition, managed services offer established patch and update processes and highly trained IAM experts.
Flexibility and Scalability
And finally, with IDaaS outsourcing, companies naturally benefit from all the classic advantages of a cloud project – in other words: from a high degree of flexibility and scalability, be it with regard to the provision, the feature set or the short time-to-market. No matter how the requirements develop, the cloud IAM grows with them.
In view of all these plus points, the decision “Build or Buy?” is comparatively easy for most companies today: IDaaS models are popular across all industries and company sizes and are considered the easiest and fastest migration option for companies that want their IAM to go to the cloud as quickly as possible. Despite this supposed simplicity, security managers should by no means take the project lightly. There are numerous pitfalls from choosing the right manufacturer to defining the feature set and integrating it into the application landscape.
As part of our IAM Cloud Ops consulting service, we are happy to provide you with experienced consultants for the planning and implementation of an IDaaS model and help you:
- compare the offers of the leading manufacturers and recommend the ones that are right for you
- to set the course for a successful introduction at an individual workshop
- define all framework conditions together with a dedicated service delivery manager and ensure sustainable service delivery
- to integrate the IDaaS model seamlessly into your application landscape
- benefit from new functionalities at an early stage with the help of our feature experts in order to stay up to date
- to get support with our service & support teams 24/7
IAM cloud ops models have proven to be the perfect steppingstone for many companies to switch from a classic, on-premises hosted IAM to a modern cloud platform and thus lay the basis for strong, identity-based security.
However, experience also shows that such standardized off-the-shelf services have clear limits – especially with regard to the customization of the solution and its use in strictly regulated or particularly demanding environments. With the IAM Cloud Ops Advanced offer, we therefore offer a second, more customizable IDaaS model based on our Service Layers technology. But we will soon present this to you in a separate blog post.