Reduce people & process overhead costs through a single authentication platform

[SudarsanKannan]

As each lines of business (LOB) within an organization procure their own authentication solution the overhead costs of managing such solutions needs to be evaluated.  Does this island of point solutions drive additional process challenges and more disconnected authentication framework for an IAM team? Below are key discussion points to ponder before going down the path of implementing multiple authentication solutions

Reproducing & managing integrations & automation with multiple authentication platforms may prove costly

Organizations invest in the automation and integration of an authentication platform with existing security tools such as an SIEM platform, governance tools for collecting, reporting and regularly auditing of access events.  RSA SecurID Access enables those organizations to automate the process or workflow during on-boarding of users, distribution of MFA credentials and sharing of data for auditing needs. Replicating these integrations and automation across security systems using a second authentication platform may add additional cost and resourcing challenges.

Reflect on process challenges when considering multiple authentication platforms

Often rolling out or upgrading an MFA infrastructure requires a common buy-in across desktops, mobile, infrastructure, remote access and security teams. This required interaction creates process friction and overhead within some organizations.  Hence using native integration & out of the box capabilities provided by an authentication platform is critical in reducing such friction for IAM team’s success. RSA SecurID Access has such native integration capabilities through agent-based model, out-of-the-box integration with infrastructure vendors (eg. VPN, firewalls, virtualization platforms) and support for both hardware and virtual appliances. IAM teams should reflect on such process challenges and associated friction when adding yet another authentication solution in their toolbox to solve point use-cases.

Reduce user education and training costs and improve productivity through a single authentication platform

Educating and training users with two different authentication experiences provided through different solutions is a challenge when those users require the broadest set of authentication options to access applications. IAM teams considering two different authentication solutions as part of their tool set should consider looking at possible overhead of staffing and technical training of help desk team members in supporting those solutions. RSA SecurID Access helps build consistent end-user experience across the broadest set of applications and widest authentication choices that reduces the overhead of training and educating end-users. In addition, the IAM teams can improve overall help desk costs by choosing a single vendor that provides consistent experience in supporting users across a hybrid environment. 

Managing multiple authentication platforms doesn't end with technical, people or process challenges for IAM teams. The invisible costs extends to vendor management challenges, security teams managing vulnerabilities and fixing those gaps across multiple point products, and more. As an IAM practitioner one needs to evaluate and reflect on holistic value achieved through using one versus multiple authentication platforms that meets an organization's broadest set of security and identity needs.