Linux® Identity and Access Management

Linux® identity and access management (IAM) can be challenging in modern IT organizations. It used to be that Linux systems and servers were such a small fraction of enterprise networks that IT could effectively manage them independently. Now, Linux servers run ninety percent of the public cloud (according to The Linux Foundation) and Linux desktop systems are steadily gaining popularity in the workplace, both on-prem and remote. As a result, IT needs a better approach to managing Linux systems and their users.

Why Does IT Need A Better Approach to Managing Linux?

To understand why IT needs a better approach to managing Linux, we need to discuss how Linux users and systems fit into the identity and access management space as a whole. Prior to the year 2000, IT networks were predominantly on-prem and based on the Microsoft® Windows® operating system (OS). In fact, it was common for all of the users, systems, applications, files, and the network itself to revolve around the Windows OS. This enabled IT to leverage Microsoft tools such as SCCM® (formerly SMS) and Active Directory® (AD) to effectively manage all of the users and IT resources in a given environment. As a result, IT didn’t need to worry about managing Linux users and systems because they were such a small portion of the overall network (if present at all) that IT could get away with managing Linux manually or with configuration automation tools such as Chef, Puppet, Ansible, or Salt.

However, the IT landscape started to change in the mid-2000s as macOS® and Linux-based systems and servers became popular Windows alternatives. Then came web applications like Salesforce® and Google Apps (now called G Suite™) that could replace on-prem, Windows-based applications. Samba file servers and NAS appliances gained popularity soon after that, as did cloud storage alternatives such as Dropbox™ and Google Drive™. Yet, perhaps the biggest change of them all was the introduction of cloud infrastructure at AWS®, which enabled IT organizations to shift their entire data (Read more...)