What is Identity and Access Management (IAM)? Let’s find out how to protect your online identities.

Redazione RHC : 22 July 2025 19:07

How does a large organization with millions of user credentials circulating between production servers, web applications, mobile apps, and workstations, connecting to countless profiles, keep proper records of them? How does a large organization manage the digital identities of individual employees and external consultants?

Through Identity and Access Management (IAM)!

An IAM system, also known as Identity and Access Management, is a critical aspect of managing information security and protecting sensitive data. In an increasingly connected and digital world, understanding the functioning and benefits of an IAM infrastructure is essential to protecting access to corporate resources and information.

In this article, we will explore in detail what Identity and Access Management is and how it works to ensure security and access management, understanding its benefits, key components, authentication models and user identity management, all the way to profiles and security policies.

Introduction to Identity and Access Management

With the expansion of technology and growing reliance on digital resources, Identity and Access Management (IAM) has become a key concept. IAM is the foundation of on which security is based modern computing, as it allows organizations to protect their digital assets and sensitive data.

IAM is about managing and controlling who has access to what digital assets within an organization. These assets can include corporate data, applications, servers, networks, and much more.The primary goal of IAM is to ensure that only authorized people have access to what they need to perform their tasks.

Identity in this context refers to who the user is and what privileges or roles they have within the enterprise system. Identity management involves assigning and revoking privileges based on the user’s responsibilities. This is especially crucial in an enterprise environment where there are multiple employees, contractors, partners, and vendors, each with different levels of access needed to perform their jobs.

Access, on the other hand, refers to the actions a user can perform on a specific resource. It can include reading or modifying data, running applications, or accessing certain areas of a network. Access management ensures that users have access only to authorized resources and cannot perform unauthorized actions on others.

A well-designed IAM system helps minimize the risks of misuse of user credentials as well as ensure regulatory compliance and simplify identity and access management within an organization. Furthermore, IAM is crucial for monitoring user activity and detecting any anomalous behavior or security breaches.

The importance of an IAM system in a company

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a crucial element for any organization that wants to protect its digital assets and sensitive data. The importance of an IAM system in a company is evident in several key aspects:

• Data security: Protecting corporate data is essential to prevent security breaches and leaks of sensitive information. An IAM system allows you to control who can access what resources and what actions they can take. This significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access and protects company information.
• Regulatory Compliance: Many industries and sectors are subject to stringent regulations on data management and protection. A well-designed IAM system facilitates regulatory compliance, allowing your company to seamlessly comply with applicable laws and directives.
• Simplifying Identity Management: With the growing number of users, employees, suppliers, and partners, identity management can become extremely complex. IAM centralizes identity control and simplifies the process of assigning and revoking privileges. This means less risk of human error and more efficient identity management;
• Increased productivity: A well-implemented IAM system allows users to quickly and securely access the resources they need to perform their tasks. This avoids downtime due to access issues and improves overall operational efficiency;
• Cost Reduction: Simplifying identity management reduces operational costs and the risks associated with data loss and damage to the company’s reputation;
• Monitoring and Threat Detection: An IAM system provides tools to monitor user activity and spot suspicious behavior. This is essential for early detection of security threats and preventing potential cyber attacks;
• Business Flexibility: With an IAM system, companies can easily integrate new systems and benefit from the time and cost savings. This enables operational agility without compromising security;
• Managing access to cloud services: With the growing use of cloud services, an IAM system allows you to extend access controls to cloud-based services and resources, ensuring consistency in corporate identity management.

Identity and Access Management is a critical element of ensuring security, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency within an enterprise. A well-implemented IAM system contributes significantly to the protection of company resources.

Benefits of IAM for Organizations

Centralizing as usual means improving cybersecurity and significantly reducing costs. Identity and access management (IAM) offers a number of significant benefits for organizations, contributing substantially to improving operational efficiency and protecting sensitive data. Some of these benefits include:

• Centralized Control: IAM provides centralized control of identities and access, enabling effective management of security policies. This is especially useful in organizations with large numbers of users and resources.
• Cost Reduction: Preventing breaches and the costs associated with data loss from such incidents leads to significant savings. Furthermore, automating identity management processes reduces operational costs;
• Advanced security: IAM is a resource against cyber threats. It ensures that only authorized users can access corporate resources, significantly reducing the risk of security breaches. Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and advanced controls further enhances security;
• Simplified regulatory compliance: IAM helps organizations comply with data privacy laws and regulations. Reports help demonstrate compliance to regulators;
• Operational efficiency: Simplifies identity and access management across the organization, reducing the need for dedicated human resources. This results in increased productivity and fewer human errors;
• Quick and secure access: IAM allows users to quickly access the resources they need, while ensuring a high level of security. This improves the user experience and reduces operational disruptions due to access issues;
• Scalability: IAM is highly scalable and can adapt to the evolving needs of organizations. As the number of users or new resources grows, IAM can be seamlessly extended;
• Secure access to cloud services: IAM also provides effective control over cloud resources, ensuring security in hybrid or fully cloud-based environments.

IAM simplifies identity management, drives operational efficiency, and reduces the financial risks associated with cyber threats.

Key Components of Identity and Access Management

To fully understand how IAM works, it is essential to examine its key components. These elements form the foundation of a well-structured IAM system and enable organizations to effectively manage user identities and access control.

Here are the main components of IAM:

• User Identity: User identities are the core of IAM. Each user in your organization has a unique identity, which can include information such as first name, last name, username, email, role, and other related attributes. This information uniquely identifies users and allows for the assignment of privileges;
• Authentication: Authentication is the process by whicha user proves that they are who they claim to be. It typically involves the use of credentials, such as a password, smart card, or biometric authentication. Authentication is the first step in granting access to a resource;
• Authorization: After authentication, authorization defines which actions or resources a specific user is allowed to use. These authorization rules are based on the user’s role or privileges within the organization. For example, a basic level employee may have limited access compared to a system administrator;
• Session Management: Session management is responsible for keeping users’ sessions active while accessing ICT resources. This component ensures that sessions are automatically closed after a period of inactivity, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
• Password Management: Password management is about setting, changing, and protecting user passwords. This includes password policies such as password composition policies, as well as managing periodic password changes.
• Auditing and Logging: Logging user activity is essential for monitoring and detecting threats. User events and activities are logged in detail, enabling organizations to conduct audits and investigations in the event of incidents.
• Provisioning and deprovisioning: Provisioning is the process of assigning rights and privileges to users when they are added to the organization, while deprovisioning is the process of revoking these rights when users leave the organization or simply no longer need access to a specific resource. These processes ensure that privileges are assigned and revoked appropriately;
• User self-service: Many IAM solutions offer self-service capabilities for users, allowing them to manage their passwords, reset them, or request new privileges without having to involve IT support;
• Integration with applications and services: A well-designed IAM system is able to integrate with a wide range of enterprise applications and services, ensuring centralized identity and access management;
• SSO (Single Sign-on) Sign-On): SSO allows users to log in to multiple applications or services with a single authentication. This improved user experience reduces the need to keep track of numerous passwords.

As we’ve seen, each component of IAM plays an essential role in the ecosystem, helping ensure that users get the appropriate access to corporate resources, while maintaining security and compliance at the highest level.

Authentication and Authorization Models

In Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems, authentication and authorization models are key elements for ensuring security and access control. These models define how a user proves their identity and what actions or resources they can use once authenticated. Let’s take a closer look at the main authentication and authorization models used in IAM systems:

• MFA (Multi Factor Authentication): MFA is an advanced authentication model that requires more than one method to verify a user’s identity. Typically, it involves at least two of the following: something you know (such as a password), something you have (such as a physical device), and something you are (such as a biometric scan). MFA significantly increases security, since even if one component is compromised, the others remain intact;
• OAuth (Open Authorization): OAuth is a widely used authorization protocol to allow third parties to access a user’s resources without revealing the user’s password. This model is commonly used for accessing cloud-based services, social platforms, and other external applications.
• SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language): SAML is a standard for exchanging authentication and authorization informationbetween web services. It enables token-based authentication and secure access to resources, often used to allow access to cloud services.
• RBAC (Role-Based Access Control): The RBAC model is based on the definition of user roles within the organization. Users are assigned to specific roles, each with specific privileges. This model significantly simplifies permission management and ensures that users only have access to resources relevant to their role;
• ABAC (Attribute-Based Access Control): ABAC is an authorization model that takes into account specific attributes of users, resources, and context to determine access. Access is granted or denied based on rules that take into account a variety of attributes, such as the user’s department or time of day;
• DAC (Discretionary Access Control): In the DAC model, the user has some discretion in granting access to resources. For example, a user may decide to share a file with a colleague. This model is often used in less centralized systems;
• MAC (Mandatory Access Control): In the MAC model, authorization is based on rules imposed by a central authority. It is often used in contexts where access control is crucial, such as government or military industries.

Each authentication and authorization model has its own specific applications and benefits, and choosing the right model depends on the organization’s needs and the resources involved. Often, organizations combine several models to create a comprehensive IAM system that offers a balance between security and flexibility.

IAM on-premises vs. Cloud-Based IAM

A crucial decision organizations must make is whether to implement an IAM system: whether to opt for an on-premises or cloud-based solution. Both models have specific benefits and challenges, and the choice depends on the organization’s needs and resources. Let’s examine the differences between on-premises IAM and cloud-based IAM:

IAM On-Premises:

1. Local Control: IAM Solutions On-premises solutions allow for greater direct control over an organization’s infrastructure and data. This can be critical for companies that require granular control over security and regulatory compliance.
2. Customization: On-premises solutions can be highly customized to meet the organization’s specific needs. This customization provides greater flexibility in designing and implementing the IAM system.
3. Privacy and security of sensitive data: Organizations with sensitive data privacy concerns or stringent regulations may prefer an on-premises implementation, where they have greater control over data protection.
4. Initial Investment: Implementing an on-premises IAM system requires a significant initial investment in hardware, software, and IT asset management.

Cloud-Based IAM:

1. Ease of Deployment: Cloud-based IAM solutions are easier to deploy, as they do not require the purchase and configuration of hardware or software. This reduces time to value and allows for rapid activation;
2. Scalability: Cloud-based IAM solutions are highly scalable, allowing organizations to quickly adapt to changing needs. Users and resources can be flexibly added or removed.
3. Automatic Updates: Cloud IAM solution providers regularly provide security and feature updates, allowing organizations to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and security best practices.
4. Lower Upfront Costs: Cloud-based IAM solutions incur lower upfront costs than on-premises implementations. Organizations avoid the costs of purchasing and maintaining hardware;
5. Anywhere access: Cloud-based IAM solutions allow users to access corporate resources from anywhere, contributing to employee flexibility and mobility;
6. Reliability and redundancy: Cloud IAM solution providers often offer highly reliable services with good redundancy. This helps ensure constant accessibility to corporate resources.

The choice between on-premises IAM and cloud-based IAM depends on your specific business needs, including security considerations, regulatory compliance, flexibility, and costs.

In many cases, organizations adopt a combination of both solutions to best leverage the benefits of each. Regardless of the choice, the primary goal remains the creation of an IAM system that effectively protects corporate resources and simplifies identity and access management.

Access Control and Security Policies

Access control and security policies are two key elements of identity and access management (IAM) and are crucial to ensuring that corporate resources are protected and accessible only to authorized people. This chapter will explore access control in detail. Access and the importance of security policies in IAM.

Access Control:

Access control defines how resources are protected and how users gain access to those resources. This process involves several components, including:

1. Authentication: Authentication is the process by which a user proves their identity, usually through the use of credentials such as passwords, smart cards, or biometric authentication.
2. Authorization: After authentication, authorization defines which actions or resources a specific user is allowed to use. This can be based on the user’s role, user attributes, or other specific rules.
3. Security Policies: Security policies are rules that determine who can access which resources and what actions a user can take. These policies can include restrictions based on roles, times, locations, and other variables.
4. Auditing and Logging: Access control includes logging user activities for auditing and detection purposes. These logs help you track who has access to your resources and spot suspicious activity.

Security Policies:

Security policies areguidelines and rules that establish how access is controlled and what levels of security are implemented within an IAM system. These policies define how security measures are applied and include:

1. Security Policies Passwords: Security policies establish requirements for password creation and use, such as minimum length, complexity, and password expiration. This helps protect user credentials.
2. Roles and Privileges: Security policies clearly define user roles and privileges within the organization, ensuring that users have access only to resources relevant to their role.
3. Encryption: Policiesmay require encryption of sensitive data during storage or transmission. Encryption protects data from unauthorized access;
4. Attribute-based access control: Security policies can define who has access to which resources based on user attributes, such as department, function, or location;
5. Regulatory compliance: Security policies must ensure that the organization is in compliance with regulations and laws related to data protection and information privacy.

Implementing rigorous security policies within an IAM system are critical to protecting corporate resources and preventing security breaches. These policies enable organizations to balance the access needed to enable operational efficiency with the protection of sensitive data and critical assets.

Conclusions

In this journey through Identity and Access Management (IAM), we’ve looked in detail at key components, authentication and authorization models, the differences between on-premises IAM and cloud-based IAM, and how to implement IAM in a cloud-based environment. cloud, user identity management, access control, and security policies. It’s clear that IAM solutions play a critical role in protecting corporate resources and managing user identities within organizations.

IAM solutions are designed to ensure security, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency. These systems enable organizations to effectively assign, monitor, and revoke user privileges, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and improving the user experience.

The choice between on-premises and cloud-based IAM depends on the organization’s specific needs, the complexity of its IT infrastructure, and regulatory compliance. Often, organizations combine both solutions to achieve maximum benefit.

In conclusion, Identity and Access Management is an essential pillar in protecting corporate data, managing user identities, and promoting operational efficiency. Its implementation requires careful planning, clearly defining security policies, and constant monitoring of user activities. Maintaining a well-structured IAM system is crucial for adapting to evolving cyber threats and the organization’s needs.