What is Identity as a Service (IDaaS)?

What is Identity as a Service (IDaaS)?

Identity as a Service (IDaaS) is a cloud-based service that provides identity and access management (IAM) solutions to organizations. IDaaS enables any organization to manage digital identities and control access to applications, services, and resources in on-premises, hybrid, cloud-, and multi-cloud environments, without needing to deploy and maintain complex on-premises infrastructure.

As organizations have moved more sensitive data and applications to cloud environments, their legacy IAM solutions are not able to provide identity management functionality sufficient to maintain security and regulatory compliance. IDaaS platforms are purpose-built to deliver complete visibility and access control to organizations that need to extend their IAM solutions to their complete identity landscape. IDaaS is ideally suited to help:

• Organizations managing the challenge of securing seamless access to applications for remote employees, contractors, vendors.
• Enterprises transitioning to cloud-based applications like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, or Google Workspace.
• Enterprises that must improve compliance performance and mitigate the risk of identity-related security breaches.

Key IDaaS Features

IDaaS platforms provide a myriad of features that enable organizations to apply Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) policies to all users across their entire IT infrastructure. These include:

Authentication and Single Sign-On (SSO)

Enables secure login processes, often with multi-factor authentication (MFA). SSO allows users to log in once and access multiple applications seamlessly across on-premises and cloud-hosted environments.

Access Management

IDaaS implements Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and fine-grained permissions to enable organizations to enforce policies that provide users access only the resources they need to do their jobs and only when they require access.

User Provisioning and Deprovisioning

IDaaS automates the onboarding and offboarding of employees, contractors, vendors and other users of the organization’s IT infrastructure. IDaaS integrates with all systems and directories to manage user access across platforms.

Directory Services

IDaaS provides cloud-based directories that integrate with on-premises or other cloud directories.

Federated Identity Management

IDaaS supports protocols like SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect for cross-platform identity sharing.

Self-Service Features

IDaaS enables users to manage their own credentials (e.g., password resets) to reduce IT workload.

Compliance and Security

IDaaS helps organizations comply with regulatory requirements like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX. An IDaaS platform offers advanced security measures, including anomaly detection and risk-based authentication.

Benefits of IDaaS

Cost Savings: Legacy IAM tools are often siloed and require costly customization to provide identity and access management and governance support in cloud-based environments. IDaaS reduces the need to build and maintain costly on-premises infrastructure.

Scalability

IDaaS enables organizations to scale IAM to provide access management and governance as they grow and onboard new users, applications and resources. Cloud-native architecture ensures rapid deployment of new governance policies without extensive infrastructure changes.

Ease of Integration

IDaaS platforms are compatible with cloud-native, hybrid, and legacy systems, dramatically cutting development and deployment time.

Improved User Experience

Self-service IDaaS features make it much easier for end-users and administrators to ensure appropriate access to sensitive resources.

Enhanced Security

IDaaS centralizes identity management, reducing the security risks associated with siloed systems.

The role of IDaaS in Identity Governance and Administration

IDaaS simplifies and enhances digital identity management, access controls, and compliance processes. IGA focuses on ensuring the right individuals have the appropriate access to technology resources, while IDaaS provides the cloud-based tools to implement and enforce these governance policies efficiently. Here as several ways in which IDaaS contributes to IGA:

• Enables Centralized Identity Management: The centralized repositories featured in IDaaS platforms help apply IGA policies across multiple applications and systems, unifying identity governance and enabling administrators to monitor and control who has access to what resources in real-time.
• Automated User Lifecycle Management: Automated provisioning and deprovisioning across all systems and role assignments automatically triggers updates in access permissions and reduces the risk of orphaned accounts.
• Improves Access Request and Approval Workflows: IDaaS supports user-driven access requests with built-in workflows for manager or administrator approvals. This enables organizations to align with governance requirements and ensure that access is granted only after proper validation.
• RBAC and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) Enforcement: Fine-grained role- and attribute-based control over access helps organizations enforce IGA policies consistently across cloud and on-premises environments.
• Better Policy Enforcement and Compliance: IDaaS solutions enable organizations to define and enforce security and compliance policies, such as segregation of duties (SoD). This helps IGA systems support adherence to regulatory standards by providing auditable logs and reports of user access and actions.
• Robust Auditing and Reporting: IDaaS platforms offer capabilities to monitor identity usage and detect anomalies that help organizations perform regular access reviews and audits required for compliance.
• Easier Integration with Privileged Access Management (PAM): IDaaS helps ensure that administrative access of privileged accounts is closely monitored and governed.

Where to Learn More

See how IDaaS works with Omada Identity Cloud. Omada’s next-generation IGA-as-a-service platform designed to deliver complete visibility and control over any organization’s identity landscape. Omada Identity Cloud leverages real-time data processing to deliver the insights and analytics required to manage the entire identity lifecycle, bolster security, and optimize efficiency. See how Omada can help.