Maximise the efficiency and cost savings of your cloud infrastructure with effective entitlements management. Our blog covers the latest strategies and best practices for managing entitlements in the cloud.
- What is Cloud Infrastructure Entitlements Management?
- The importance of effective Cloud Infrastructure Entitlements Management
- The benefits of adopting an entitlements management strategy
- Secure and compliant entitlements management
- Industry-leading tools and technologies for entitlements management
- Summary
Entitlements Management for Cloud Infrastructure: What Is It?
The Cloud Infrastructure Entitlements Management (CIEM), sometimes referred to as Cloud Permissions Management Solutions or Cloud Entitlements Management Solutions, is the procedure for regulating access to cloud-based systems and services.
Although CIEM is still a relatively new idea in the security technology sector, it has recently become more well-known because to Gartner’s 2020 research, Hype Cycle for Cloud Security.
CIEM often entails the creation of user roles and permissions for various levels of system access, the provision of user authentication and authorization, the observation of user behaviour, and the maintenance of the system’s security.
Because it helps to guarantee that only individuals with the required rights may access the sensitive data stored in the cloud, this procedure is crucial for cloud security. It aims to identify the dangers associated with having larger system privileges than necessary and to mitigate those risks.
Effective cloud infrastructure entitlements management’s significance
Rights for Cloud Infrastructure For businesses of all sizes using cloud service providers, management is crucial. As more businesses move their operations to the cloud, supply chains and security flaws are increasingly being exploited in cyber assaults and can represent very significant hazards to businesses and their cloud infrastructure.
With the aid of CIEM, businesses can make sure that users have the right level of access to their cloud resources and that the data and apps they keep there are safe and compliant. By ensuring that only individuals with the proper authorization may access the resources they require, entitlements management aids businesses in maintaining control over their cloud infrastructure. Effective entitlements management may also help firms follow industry best practises and lower the cost of cloud services.
More than 85% of businesses will have chosen a “cloud-first” approach by 2025, according to Gartner researchers. These strategies won’t be able to be successfully deployed and maintained without sound security solutions like CIEM. Therefore, it’s more crucial than ever for your firm to establish a successful CIEM.
The advantages of implementing a plan for managing entitlements
Adopting CIEM into your cloud architecture has several advantages. Enhanced cloud security, high efficiency, huge cost savings, improved performance, and optimisation are a few examples. Additionally, because it provides exceptional insight into entitlements, CIEM is also helpful in a multi-tenant or multi-cloud context.
Let’s look at a few of the advantages in greater depth.
Customised options for your particular company requirements
Businesses may tailor their solutions using CIEM solutions to fit their unique demands and goals. Each business has unique demands based on how they operate, so being able to use CIEM to specifically satisfy those needs is quite useful.
Organisations can modify the following elements to meet their own business needs:
CIEM in the cloud – This is an excellent method to install a complete customer identification and access management solution fast and efficiently. It offers a unified platform to regulate access, authentication, and consumer identities across various devices and apps. Additionally, it is simple to modify to fit your organization’s requirements.
CIEM with multi-factor authentication – With the help of this feature, a safe authentication procedure can be implemented that demands several different elements in order to acquire access. This system may be modified to support a number of authentication techniques, including hardware tokens, one-time passwords, and biometrics.
CIEM with a single sign-on Users may now use the same login information to access several applications and services thanks to this. This method of managing client IDs is practical and secure, and it also enhances consumer satisfaction.
CIEM with identity federation – This gives customers’ identities a safe, standardised approach to be managed across many enterprises. Each organization’s unique needs may be met by tailoring this solution.
identity management CIEM –This makes it possible for enterprises to create and control access policies for their clients. Each organization’s unique demands may be met by this solution, which can also be utilised to verify compliance with industry rules.
With optimum entitlements, performance is improved and costs are reduced.
Performance may be improved and expenditures may be decreased by optimising entitlements. Organisations can determine which privileges need to be maintained and which ones should be eliminated, scaled back, or consolidated by examining and analysing user access rights and privileges. Additionally, by ensuring that users only have access to the resources they need, this approach can assist to lower the risk of unauthorised access to critical systems or data.
Additionally, by minimising the time required for manual procedures like granting and controlling access, the optimising of entitlements can result in better performance.
As firms no longer have to pay for access to resources that are not being utilised, minimising the amount of unused entitlements can also result in cost savings.
automated methods to increase productivity and cut costs
CIEM offers a wide range of services, including as automatic provisioning, resource utilisation management, automated patching, and compliance reporting, to help businesses manage their cloud infrastructure more effectively. Additionally, CIEM offers cloud automation and orchestration features that assist businesses in lowering operating expenses and enhancing their agility.
Management of entitlements that is secure and legal
Your entitlements management system must be safe and provide complete risk mitigation in order to ensure the security of your cloud services.
Through the provision of a consolidated platform for controlling access to all apps and services, CIEM delivers secure and compliant entitlements management. Tools for managing user identities, authentication, authorisation, and access control policies are included in the platform.
For monitoring and tracking changes to user access rights and permissions, CIEM also offers automated workflow procedures. In addition, CIEM offers strong audit and reporting capabilities to guarantee adherence to legal specifications and industry standards.
Control and real-time visibility of your cloud entitlements
The utilisation of real-time visibility and control of your cloud components is one of the most important aspects of maintaining a safe and compliant entitlements management system. By keeping track of and enforcing user access permissions and application privileges, this promotes security. It is accomplished by combining cloud data from all cloud environments, giving administrators the ability to keep an eye on each user’s actions and access rights to specific cloud services.
In order to stop unauthorised access, managers may also use CIEM to implement granular access control rules and immediately find any policy breaches. This helps to secure the company from potential data breaches by ensuring that only approved users have the required credentials to access data and apps in the cloud.
Businesses can monitor their cloud consumption, find possible cost-saving opportunities, and swiftly fix any security flaws thanks to real-time visibility and control over their cloud entitlements. Businesses that closely watch how they use the cloud can rapidly spot any unauthorised access or usage and take appropriate measures to stop it from happening again. Businesses may also employ real-time visibility and control to spot possibilities for performance, dependability, and scalability optimisation of their cloud environments.
These allow companies to see how they are using the cloud, giving them the information they need to manage their resources effectively and reduce expenses. This enables them to make sure that their cloud environment is safe, legal, and performance-optimized.
top tools and technology for managing entitlements
For CIEM, there are many available tools and technologies, some of which are better and more beneficial than others. Here are some of our top recommendations for cutting-edge tools and solutions for managing entitlements:
Tools for automated testing For CIEM, automated testing technologies like Selenium, Appium, and Ranorex are necessary to efficiently and effectively test application updates.
Version management tools For CIEM to monitor changes in an application and make sure that all changes are recorded and tested, version control systems like Git and Subversion are essential.
Tools for continuous integration For CIEM to automate the process of developing, testing, and deploying apps, continuous integration solutions like Jenkins and Travis CI are crucial.
Tools for containerization: Applications may be swiftly deployed and scaled with the help of containerisation tools like Docker and Kubernetes for CIEM.
Monitoring tools: For CIEM to track application performance in real-time and spot any possible problems, monitoring tools like New Relic and Datadog are essential.
Summary
Any modern business would find cloud infrastructure entitlements management to be a huge advantage. Integrating it into a cloud environment to ensure that it is safe and that users only have access to the resources they are permitted to use has unquestionably several advantages. A lot of businesses use CIEM to safeguard their data, stop illegal access, and enhance overall security.
CIEM should be used in accordance with best practises, which include establishing access restrictions, defining user roles, keeping track of user activity, and routinely evaluating access privileges.
Choosing the best cloud service provider who can integrate CIEM into your organisation is crucial as we transition to a more fully digitalized world.
