People, technology and business are inseparable today. Making sure the connection points across this trifecta are secure at all times seems like an easy enough proposition, right? Well, consider this: Most large enterprises house thousands to hundreds of thousands or even millions of “identities” — from employees and contractors to machines. These identities connect to upwards of billions of technology access points, all with varying levels of access requirements that change constantly as the needs of the business change.
On top of that, as businesses continue to adjust to the virtual and flex workplace, many are implementing new applications to ensure day-to-day activities remain seamless, but are unknowingly — or, in some cases, knowingly — sacrificing security in the process. This is an expansive area of risk for many businesses. The human (and even non-human) workforce will always come with a certain risk level, but now a distributed workforce often provides malicious actors with more opportunities to do their dirty work as the pandemic’s impact on the way we work has opened organizations up to a much larger “attack surface”.
Access is Easy. Security is Hard.
Protecting that connection between identities (think: employees, contractors, partners, machines) and technology is starting to sound pretty complex to properly manage when you stack it all up. The good news is, with a single view into all identities and their access rights, securing those connection points across the business can be simplified.
However, I caution organizations against oversimplification. Some organizations may be tempted to only focus on providing the right access, skipping past truly securing that access. It’s understandable given that true identity security at large, complex enterprises now exceeds human capacity and requires some level of automation to balance enablement with security. To keep business running full steam ahead, companies must recognize going beyond access to secure all connection points is a key component of a solid security equation and, ultimately, enabling a secure workforce.
So, how do you wrap your arms around this complex problem? Through intelligence, automation, and integration. When you leverage AI-driven intelligence to automate the discovery, management, and control of ALL access throughout the digital lifecycle of each identity, you can ensure that everyone always has the right access needed to do their job – no more, no less. These three components are critical to a solid identity security foundation.
- Intelligence allows companies to stay ahead of the curve with AI-enhanced visibility, detection, and remediation that adapts as your organization evolves. With AI and machine learning you can easily understand, report, and dynamically manage critical identity security policies across today’s ever-evolving enterprise environment.
- Automation streamlines access while also spotting and stopping overprivileged or conflicting access, or worse, potentially compromised access. Add to that the ability to efficiently administer identity security programs by automating important identity processes and decisions, such as access requests, role modeling, and access certifications and you are saving time, and freeing up IT teams to focus elsewhere.
- Integration easily extends your ability to control access for all your users, applications, and data across your entire cloud and hybrid IT infrastructure. Seamlessly integrate with existing business and security systems to infuse identity context and decisions into the everyday workflow of the business, creating a frictionless, user-centric experience.
When enterprises build a security strategy with identity security at the core, their workforce is empowered, not held back; secure, not a potential point of exposure.
Discover the Core of Identity Security
Complexity is SailPoint’s bread and butter. We shine at helping our customers tackle their greatest identity challenges with the sophistication and ease they require. For example, we have a major financial services company as a customer that has well over 140,000 identities tied to more than 8,500 applications, driving millions of entitlements. These are serious numbers to manage. There is no “easy button” in the world big enough to solve that without some level of sophistication and, most certainly, without the aid of AI to drive autonomous identity decision-making. Our ultimate objective is to help accelerate our customers’ business while securing every identity and every single access point and doing all of that with the speed and accuracy only SailPoint can deliver.
For companies today to be truly secure, they need to lean in on the notion that identity security is core to securing their business from the constellation of threats regularly facing their business. On top of that, the sure path forward is an identity security solution that is dynamic, flexible, and agile, keeping pace with the velocity of today’s modern enterprise.
Now is the time for businesses to re-evaluate their security strategy to make sure identity security is at the foundation. After all, you can’t confidently run a business without protecting access to the myriad of technology assets that are critical to powering your business. Placing identity security at the core of your business pays the ultimate dividend: freeing your workers to focus on innovation, collaboration, and productivity while reducing overall identity-related risk.