Today’s organizations have an exorbitant number of applications to manage access for, while trying to find the right balance between productivity and security. In fact, the number of apps in use by the average enterprise increased by 20% in 2020, according to a recent Netskope threat report. Organizations with 500-2,000 employees now use approximately 700 different cloud apps per month. It’s no secret that IT and security teams are struggling to keep up with access control and governance. The primary challenges for these businesses are a lack of insights and automation as well as a lack of visibility and accessibility to identity data. A largely human-based, manual approach leads to overprovisioning access to users and causes non-compliance and unnecessary exposure to risks.
According to IDC, business leaders understand the benefits of automation, AI and ML, and investments will more than double from $19B in 2020 to over $50B in 2025. Although identity security is now seen as an essential part of managing operations, security teams still struggle to implement a holistic, forward-looking approach to managing access. Without the right tools, insights and automation, organizations are left with the same unanswered questions:
- How do we leverage our identity data to make better access decisions?
- How do we automate basic Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) processes so our IT and security teams can focus on more strategic and riskier projects?
- How can we create a central location for our compliance teams to compile and review identity data for audit preparation?
- How do can we ensure our identity program can keep up with our changing organizational needs?
In 2022, IDC published a whitepaper titled “Artificial Intelligence: The Key to Identity Security” addressing key trends and the challenges plaguing IT and security teams. The paper explores the benefits of adopting an identity solution that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to deliver intelligence and automation. “…As organizations and their IT teams mature and become more sophisticated in adopting AI and automation, they will benefit from a more proactively managed identity security environment…”, says Jay Bretzmann, Research Vice President, IDC Security Products.
Traditional IGA solutions can no longer keep up with today’s identity security needs.
To maintain a strong security posture, organizations must consider comprehensive identity cloud solutions that use AI and ML to intelligently inform stakeholders, simplify processes and enable quicker and safer access decisions. A modern approach to IGA can replace unreliable and time-consuming certification campaigns with proactive identity management practices that dynamically and securely adapt access as organizational changes arise. Visibility and accessibility of your identity data, using solid dashboards and reporting capabilities, are crucial to demonstrating compliance and for tracking performance improvements in your identity program. A unified identity security solution backed by AI and ML can produce immediate and significant results. As organizations modernize their approach, they will reduce their identity related risk while improving employee productivity, reducing costs associated with managing unnecessary access.
Read the IDC report “Artificial Intelligence: The Key to Identity Security” to learn more.
