Why make things easy when it’s so easy to make things hard? This question always enters my head when I think of Identity Management. In two decades of covering the Identify Management industry I have seen one company after another build identity management solutions that either over complicate the experience for the network administrator or over complicate the experience for the end-user. Sometimes both.
Originally, this complication was often caused by the overall complexity associated with the infancy of technology during the early days of networks and network administration. But nowadays IT service management has evolved into a customer-centric paradigm. ITSM juggernauts like Unisys preach the mantra People Critical is the New Mission Critical, as they describe the growing importance on the end-user and admin alike when providing IT services.
“What does ‘mission critical’ computing mean today? It used to mean reliable, available, scalable and secure. Enough to confidently run your most important business processes on. But no longer. Consumerization, cloud, analytics, mobility and social media have changed all that.
They’ve taken the whole idea of mission critical out of the back office – where it originated – and put it right into the hands of your front-line users.”
– Source: http://www.unisys.com/ms/people-critical-is-the-new-mission-critical
Identity Management companies must lead this trend. Why? Because we’re the front door of all user experience. We’re the gatekeepers that allow companies to be productive, that allow schools and Universities teach their students, that provide patients access to their healthcare records, and that ultimately provide people access to information.
But what does it mean to keep it simple? How can Identity Management companies do this?
Automated: The end-user and the admin alike must have a seamless experience through a logical interface. At Nervepoint Technologies our Access Manager solution operates as a Virtual Machine on your network. Simply install it on your own VM infrastructure and in minutes you’re up and running with the only VM-based Password and Identity self-service solution in the market.
More and more businesses are using virtual machines and virtual infrastructures because of the cost-effective nature, and the low floor-space footprint, associated with the virtual technologies. You simply import Access Manager into your VMWare ESXi server or HyperV server, press play and off you go. As the complexity and size of your organization grows our proprietary virtual technology unites all your back-end silos into a single user interface. This allows your admins the ability to manage multiple networks, while your customers get a single, consistent and unified interface.
Compatible: Keeping the approach towards Identity Management simple also means placing compatibility as a core strength in an effective platform. Access Manager can connect to multiple Active Directories, integrate with various Linux-based systems and cloud solutions with the Office 365 connector, extend to cloud systems with Google Apps connector, and is compatible with user accounts on legacy Solaris systems.
Comprehensive: Simple doesn’t have to mean light. Some solutions offer only parts of a robust identity management platform. A good solution has all the necessary features that appeal to the end-user, admin and the CTO.
Access Manager offers self-management of identities across multiple systems. This makes it easy and convenient for end-users. IT admins like our solutions because we reduce help desk load by securely offloading password and account related issues to end users and department heads. Finally, CTO’s use our solutions to reduce costs with a low datacenter footprint VM or an unlimited-user hardware appliance.
The result is a robust, affordable solution that provides identity management from anywhere at any time, and without draining budget or resources.
