Why Access Management as a Service (AMaaS), Why Now
Imagine a secure access management environment that authenticates and authorizes every employee, contractor, partner and customer each time they access data. Imagine a system that requires customers, partners, or employees to have only a single logon ID and password to verify who they are and their access rights across every data source. Now imagine cloud-delivered Access Management as a Service (AMaaS), which allows you to accomplish all this without deploying any hardware or installing and maintaining a suite of complex enterprise software — and without requiring the IT team to keep roles and permissions updated across dozens or hundreds of datasets.
Datawiza is the first company to offer AMaaS. This new approach to security delivered by the cloud provides easy-to-deploy, centralized access management that eliminates system silos across on-premises applications and hybrid multicloud environments, such as those built on Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud and private data centers.
The need for secure access management as a service has never been greater. Organizations have been moving applications and data to the cloud to provide more self-service access to various datasets for employees, customers and partners. And they are accelerating their cloud journeys in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders that forced increased reliance on cloud services. Data now lives everywhere and in multiple locations, and remote users access it from anywhere, using a variety of unsecured devices and networks. For example, an insurance agent working on her laptop at home in Southern California may have to access three or four different data sources located in various repositories around the country to help customers fill out claims. These data sources may include public and private clouds, and most companies still rely on on-premises datasets and applications.
The result is that even as concerns over data security and evolving privacy regulations are at an all-time high, organizations no longer have any practical way to restrict access to corporate data to company-issued devices and secure corporate networks or VPNs.
Gartner writes, “As remote work increases access management tool adoption, and security controls shift to identity, the ability to secure access with AM strategies aligned with continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment is paramount.” (Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Access Management, Michael Kelley, Abhyuday Data, Henrique Teixeira, 11/17/20) This means we can no longer separate achieving trust through authentication (ensuring people are who they say they are) from reducing risk through authorization (ensuring only the right people have access to sensitive information). We must verify both each time a user accesses data based on continuously updated information – without hindering user productivity or requiring constant attention from security professionals.
This is exactly what Datawiza access management as a service delivers. Our Datawiza Access Broker, a lightweight cloud-native proxy, connects applications and databases to identity providers such as Microsoft Azure AD, Okta and Auth0. The Datawiza Cloud Management console provides comprehensive, centralized, fine-grained policy management, visibility and analytics across the entire environment. Datawiza consolidates access management across all data sources in hybrid multicloud deployments for continuous, real-time trust and risk management, and companies can manage all types of data access, including remote workers, contractors, partners and customers. The system propagates a single identity definition update across all datastores and applications, simplifying access management while increasing security and reducing frustration for employees by providing immediate access to the tools and data they need when they need them using a single login ID and password.
With the Datawiza cloud-delivered AMaaS, security professionals and governance teams can align their data access management strategy with the continuous risk and trust assessment model required by hybrid multicloud environments. This possibility is already creating a stir in the industry. Datawiza was recently invited to join the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) program. The program, which began as an ecosystem of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that integrate security products with Microsoft’s, has now launched an invitation-only program for selected security providers. Datawiza’s invitation to join MISA reflects the ease of integrating our solution with other solutions in the Microsoft security ecosystem, providing important benefits for companies running on Microsoft Azure Active Directory.
With security, productivity and brand reputation on the line, companies can no longer rely on a complex and disconnected access management strategy that frustrates IT administrators and users alike. That’s why 2021 will be the year when access management as a service becomes a foundational technology that enables organizations of all sizes to provide all users with the access they need while reducing the cost and complexity of protecting their applications and data.
The post Why Access Management as a Service (AMaaS), Why Now appeared first on Datawiza.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Industry Archives - Datawiza authored by Canming Jiang. Read the original post at: https://www.datawiza.com/blog/industry/why-access-management-as-a-service-amaas-why-now/
