What Is Identity as a Service?

Every year, businesses fall victim to data breaches due to poor identity access management. Data breaches can ruin an organizations’ reputation and cripple the business. An effective identity management strategy is critical to safeguard businesses, protect customers from data breaches and streamline the user experience across various devices. Today, many companies are turning to Identity as a Service (IDaaS) providers to help combat identity management challenges. Learn how your business can benefit from this service.

Identity as a Service (IDaaS) is an identity and access management (IAM) service deployed by a third-party cloud provider. IDaaS authenticates each user to ensure only authorized individuals have access to files, software and resources. IDaaS also helps with auditing and compliance by collecting data on each user, including when a user accessed the system. This cloud service is extremely beneficial for businesses that have migrated to the cloud and don’t manage their own network or servers.
Common features offered with IDaaS are:

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Biometrics
• Single sign-on (SSO)
• User management and access control

An IDaaS service is essentially an application programming interface (API), or a set of rules, that acts as a mediator for how software applications interact. With IDaaS, the API mediates the authentication process between a user and a company’s applications or data. This service primarily helps manage the identity of three types of users:

• End-users: Customer identity and access management (CIAM).
• Staff: IDaaS uses Workforce IAM to help manage authorized users’ access to internal applications.
• Business partners and customers: Utilizing B2B IAM on IDaaS, companies can integrate identity with their partners or contractors.

Each of these types requires a different process. An organization can choose all three services or just one based on their needs.

IDaaS offers various identity management resources, including customer registration, login screens, identity verification and user account management. Verification tools deployed by IDaaS include:

With SSO, users log in to one application and are automatically logged into other authorized applications. This verification process is popular among businesses with multiple brands since it allows for user visibility with reduced restrictions.

MFA requires users to log in with more than one piece of identifying information, such as a password and verification number. Since a username and password combination is more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, MFA has become a popular method for verifying a users’ identity. Types of credentials used to log in are a combination of the following:

• User password
• Push notification through phone or email
• Fingerprint or retina scan

The most important function of IDaaS services is to better secure an organization’s data and resources by giving access to only authorized individuals. Through verifications tools like MFA and SSO, IDaaS utilizes identity data to help protect against cyber-attacks and malicious hackers. This cloud service helps you effectively manage all users, including remote employees, external users, customers, partners and contractors.

Implementing new software updates or adding new users through an internal IAM system can be time-consuming for your IT team. IDaaS providers take on this responsibility for you so updates are made automatically.

With a centralized IAM system, employees experience the same secure and seamless process regardless of the device used or where they are located.

Between paying for labor and investing in software, managing your identity security can be costly. IDaaS providers offer the resources, expertise and software updates your business needs rolled into one predictable price.

Every organization must ensure their data practices are compliant to their industry’s unique requirements—a centralized identity solution helps track who is accessing your data and what it’s being used for. IDaaS keeps track of each user and can create reports for auditing.

Whether users are trying to access data in the cloud, your hosted environments or onsite—IDaaS can help safeguard your business. Service providers like Cox Business offer a suite of cloud solutions that pair with IDaaS to streamline your processes, track who is accessing your data and provide peace of mind.