IAM hosting; we adapt to your choices

The choice of hosting infrastructure – public cloud, private, or a hybrid – is a key part of an organisation’s digital strategy. But the constantly changing infrastructure landscape can make decisions hard. Our IAM solution, Able+, works across different types and even combinations of infrastructure. You can change and adapt your solution to fit your needs today and in the future.

What would we recommend?

Public cloud, private, or a hybrid? We’ve previously discussed our experts’ views on the future of IAM and hosting in this blog post. According to Forbes, 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2022 and Identity and Access Management (IAM) is no exception. This article looks into the opportunities offered by our cloud hosting and software-as-a-service models.

Reduce costs

The most immediate impact on costs are the savings that can be achieved by avoiding in-house hosting. It isn’t just the cost of the hardware; there’s the money tied up in datacentre estate, enterprise software licenses, personnel costs, and so forth. Thanks to their massive scale and single focus, cloud providers can organise hosting much more efficiently than any Enterprise.

Boost flexibility

Digital transformation has led to an explosion in devices and their cloud-based data and applications. This extends the scope of IAM beyond the business’ premises to employees’ homes, business and collaboration partners, and service providers. An on-premise solution will inevitably be constrained by the datacentre architecture: its connectivity, resilience, security and so forth. However, cloud-based architectures are free of these constraints, making it easier to meet these emerging needs.

Drive innovation

Increasingly, Enterprise IT is pivoting from developing and operating in-house solutions towards consuming services from third-party providers. This brings two benefits. First, it moves the risk to the provider, under contract. Secondly, it allows the business to focus its resources on innovations that build on these services to yield new business value. In an IAM context, such innovation could include workflow configuration, bespoke connectors, and dashboards and reporting tools.

Culture shock

Moving to the cloud can seem like losing control. Hardware servers are tangible, whereas virtual machines and containers are not. In reality, the distinction is illusory. The business still depends on a third party provider in both cases. What matters is ensuring that the cloud-specific dependencies are managed appropriately within the service provision contract and the overall partnership.

Provider considerations

The key considerations are those having regulatory or statutory consequences. Chief among these is data protection legislation, such as GDPR and HIPAA. The business may also operate under sector-specific regulations. Organisations must perform due diligence to ensure that their providers meet their compliance requirements.

The second tier of considerations are operational. This includes aspects such as the adequacy of the Service Level Agreement. Organisations must have confidence that the provider can deliver; and that appropriate mechanisms exist to address any issues. A third tier of considerations is the provider’s technology. For example, how close is the alignment between the organisation digital strategy and the provider’s product roadmap and technical stack?

Summary

An IAM solution touches almost all parts of the business and digital estate. Implementing a new IAM solution can be a significant project in itself. It inevitably introduces new issues for the business to consider, such as compliance. However, there are substantial benefits to a cloud-hosted solution, which this article has discussed.

Why should you consider Able+ for your identity and access?

Able+ is a comprehensive, future-proof IAM solution that helps you deliver your organisation’s digital strategy. To find out more about Able+ and how we can help increase productivity for your organisation, visit our webpage or contact us directly.