Why Is Cloud Identity Important for Your Business?

You can never create your cloud migration strategy without reading about the security measures offered by the cloud vendors. Cloud vendors like Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS are offering various security features to their clients. This will ensure that your staff can access the resources they need.

If you want to implement cloud-based security solutions, then you must know about identity management first. This will help you in creating the right plan. Also, you can develop a strategy that will help you in securing your cloud data. In this article, we are going to talk about the importance of cloud identity.

How is cloud security and identity linked with each other?

The ability of your company to effectively identify and authenticate groups of users is known as identity management. You can place restrictions on your users. However, you need to create this process in an efficient manner. It will ensure that the right people can access the resources that they need at the right time.

You can use cloud computing for achieving digital transformation. It will ensure that you can access your data and apps from anywhere in the world. However, it is important to ensure that your security and identity are at the same level. Every business is trying to protect their cloud data. The first thing you should do is find a solution that manages both identity and security.

Why you should use cloud services for Identity and Access Management or IAM?

Every business has a set of applications that they want to access on a regular basis. There are various factors that you need to consider like staff departures and role-based access controls. Thus, it is very complex to create an efficient solution. You need a solution that will help you in automating this entire process. Also, you need to monitor and control the identity of your users. There are many amazing cloud services available in the market that will help you in identity management.

However, Azure Active Directory is our favorite identity management tool. This is a completely in-built IAM service provided by Azure. It is also one of the best IAM tools available in the market. If you are already using the Azure cloud, then you should try Azure Active Directory. Azure AD is a multi-cloud service that will help you in combining all the core directory services. You can combine identity protection and access management in a single platform. They are also offering more features when compared to other cloud solutions. Every business needs to access various SaaS applications for completing their work. Thus, the value of this product is actually very immense.

Benefits of Identity management cloud tools:

There are many advantages of using identity management tools like Azure AD. They will provide you better cloud security and data protection. Also, they will help you in enforcing better access controls. Some of the most important benefits of identity cloud tools are:

• Conditional Access:

This function is also provided by Azure Access Directory. It will help you in balancing both security and productivity. You can balance these two processes by automating access control decisions. It will allow you to use preset conditions for automating this entire process. For example, suppose that if someone is trying to access resources from your corporate network, then you can trust them. However, if someone is using an external IP address, then CA will prevent them from accessing your resources. They need to complete the 2-factor authentication before accessing your resources. This will ensure that only your employees can access your data.

• RBAC or Role-based access controls:

Azure AD will also give you access to in-built RBAC roles. You can use it for assigning privileges to your applications, groups, and users. It will help you in defining these roles for applications at different scopes like single resources or subscriptions. This will help you in enforcing better resources and data access control. You can give only the required privileges to your users.

• Single Sign-On or SSO:

Azure AD will help you in enabling SSO for all your applications, services, and devices. This will ensure that your employees can use the same credentials for accessing your on-premise and cloud environment. Your employees can work from anywhere in the world without worrying about remembering different passwords. Also, admins don’t need to worry about learning a new identity solution. They can use this for achieving SSO without implanting other identity solutions. If you are not using SSO, then your employees will create separate passwords for your environment. Thus, this will ultimately lead to weak passwords and security breaches.

• SAML or Security Assertion Markup Language:

You can use the Azure Active directory for configuring your applications. This will ensure that you can work on SAML-based providers. Your users can use tokens for signing into 3rd-party applications. They only need to get access one time from the user. After that, they can use their token for accessing third-party applications.

• Centralized management:

Most companies have a hybrid environment. Azure AD will help you in integrating your cloud and local directories. This will help your admin in managing all the accounts from a single location. Your users can use common credentials for accessing your resources. They don’t need to worry about any authentication problem. If you are not integrating your cloud and on-premises identity, then it will ultimately lead to security breaches. Thus, the costs of managing your users will increase.

Conclusion

Identity is a very important layer for every business. You can use cloud-based solutions like Azure AD for protecting your data. It will help you in effectively managing your user’s account. You can streamline the entire IAM interface by using these tools. These tools will also give you access to the RBAC. Also, you can implement SSO without worrying about learning new tools. This will help your admins in managing your users. Conditional Access will ensure that only your legit users can access your resources. If you need more information regarding cloud security, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.