Edgile is a 2020 Microsoft Security System Integrator of the Year, Gold Microsoft Partner in various categories plus a three-time SailPoint Admiral Partner (since 2018).
By Gretchen Wichmann and Tarun Vazirani
Identity programs sit at the center of the modern security strategy. Developing the identity strategy and successfully running identity programs—not projects, but actual programs—remains a top priority for many organizations, leaving program execution an active assignment in today’s dynamic enterprise environment that includes a growing number of people, apps, technology movement and more regulations.
Edgile solves identity by first working with organizations to develop their enterprise identity strategies and then defining the architecture and implementation of the approach, using our Quick Start programs. Whether you are about to reboot your program or if you’re just getting started, we’ve outlined 7 questions you should ask your organization in our best practices infographic that we first published and featured at the Gartner IAM Summit.
For 20 years, we have focused on security and compliance. Edgile has been the trusted partner servicing 30 of the Fortune 100 and nearly 100 of the Fortune 500.
Working with CISOs across clients, we see that leading organizations are extending their investments in Microsoft, receiving tremendous value from existing and new security and compliance capabilities in the Microsoft product suite—specifically in the context of identity. Executives at these enterprises are leveraging security controls for access, both internal and external. And Microsoft has extended their commitment in this area with a focus not just on internal identities but also external identities, solving B2B and B2C use cases for employees, contractors, customers, partners, devices, IoT and vendors.
Enter SailPoint.
With enterprises using products such as Microsoft Azure External Identities and Azure AD for access management, single sign-on and robust multi-factor authentication, SailPoint is needed to implement identity governance automated lifecycle management, access certifications and access requests. In short, Microsoft delivers access and SailPoint masters identity governance.
Our colleagues here at Edgile know both solutions very well. Edgile is a 2020 Microsoft Security System Integrator of the Year, Gold Microsoft Partner in various categories as well as being a 3x SailPoint Admiral Partner (since 2018).
With the perimeter long gone from enterprise defenses today, and the universe of cloud, IoT, mobile and remote sites here to stay, the cornerstone of any modern enterprise cybersecurity strategy must be identities. Identity is the new perimeter. Securing all identities—internal and external—is the essential first step for a Zero Trust strategy.
Internal identities create a challenge: “Who has access to what at a given point in time?” We want to make sure least privilege principles apply and user access certifications are an important element. Provisioning/de-provisioning and automation become a key to ensure timely removal of access. Also, we have to think about overall Role-Based Access Control so only the right users have access to the right applications.
The external identity problem is equally vexing, but for different reasons. The core principle of least privilege is still essential, but with a seemingly endless list of external salespeople, distributors, suppliers, contractors and customers accessing sensitive enterprise data directly via VPNs, the cloud, mobile, IoT and remote sites, the external identity situation can potentially have to scale even more than internal identities.
The tricky part is not only selecting the best apps for that identity, but making sure that the apps work together seamlessly, work equally well with all other apps in the enterprise, configure properly for that enterprise, and do so securely as well as doing so in such a way as to keep the enterprise compliant. With more and more internal and external identities, there is a need to holistically tie internal and external identities and there has to be governance around these efforts. This is where Edgile excels in providing creative and integrated solutions. We specialize in serving highly-regulated industries, including financial services, healthcare and energy.
The SailPoint side of the integration delivers automated provisioning (i.e. makes the process of granting/revoking access quick, seamless, and accurate), manages on-premises and cloud applications, and provides an access request portal for users, making it easy for users to ask for access to critical applications and for managers to approve/deny. SailPoint also manages access for external users who may not be contained in the HR system (the authoritative source).
“The world is getting more risky for organizations trying to go through digital transformations. And since 2005, SailPoint has been focused on helping organizations move safely along their digital journey by gaining visibility into and understanding of identities,” a SailPoint strategist said during the webinar discussion. “That’s all types of identities, whether it’s employees or contractors or volunteers or vendors—or even new types of identities like server-less functions, bots or data itself. SailPoint is focused on helping organizations see these things, understand them deeply and then apply policy so that you know that your security perimeter is drawn tight around that identity. We integrate with applications data and platforms to provide one place where you know who has access to what and you can be sure that that access is correct.”
Combining these services from SailPoint and Microsoft brings a wide range of benefits. Among those benefits is reducing time and friction for integrating partners/customers, making it simple for users to bring their own identities (BYOI), automatically terminating access for most guest users when those privileges are no longer needed, automating the provisioning of cloud and on-premises applications, certifying the access of Azure external identities through SailPoint as well as making life easier for administrators and users by letting admins directly invite a user to use an application without creating a ticket.
To learn more about enterprise identity strategies, please join SailPoint, Edgile and Microsoft for a webinar discussing how these capabilities helped a major financial institution.