1 Introduction
In recent years, the scope of Identity and Access Management (IAM) has broadened significantly. Traditionally centered on managing large user bases and their access rights, the field now also encompasses identity security — the intersection of IAM and cybersecurity. As a result, managing and protecting user identities and data has become essential for business organizations across the globe.
Additionally, the rise of digital identities marks a shift toward specialized services that address the unique needs of today's digital enterprises. These expansions reflect the evolving landscape where IAM not only secures access but also facilitates digital interactions across a wide range of platforms and user scenarios.
Furthermore, modern IAM platforms are essential for managing the diverse array of user identities that characterize today's workforce. These platforms must effectively handle the identities of full-time employees, remote workers, temporary staff, contractors, suppliers, partners, etc. By integrating these diverse user groups into a single management framework, IAM systems streamline security protocols and access controls, improving overall organizational efficiency.
By rigorously verifying each identity and enforcing strict access controls based on real-time data, IAM systems ensure that only authenticated and authorized entities can access sensitive resources. This helps minimize potential attack vectors while also aligning with the core principle of Zero Trust: "never trust, always verify."
To function within diverse technological ecosystems and maintain compatibility with various other systems, IAM products must adhere to several industry standards. These standards help ensure they interoperate effectively with other solutions and meet market requirements. For example, these include:
- Provisioning: SCIM
- User identity storage: LDAP
- Authentication: Kerberos, RADIUS, PKI/x.509 including smart cards, FIDO U2F/UAF/2.0, WebAuthn, and more
- Federation: OAuth, OpenID, OpenID Connect (OIDC), and SAML
- Authorization: JSON, JWT, UMA, and XACML, with OAuth and OIDC also serving authorization use cases
This report examines the cidaas platform, one of the leading modern IAM solutions on the market. The solution includes authorization management capabilities, which manage the entire lifecycle of user identities. This includes the dynamic adjustment of permissions as individuals join, move within, or leave an organization.
Its Auth Manager capability supports complex approval workflows for managing permissions, capable of handling requests for temporary or permanent roles and access rights through an interface that supports multiple, parallel, or sequential approval steps.
This functionality is crucial for compliance and audit processes, because the system tracks all approval and access activities, facilitating the straightforward generation of compliance reports and recertification documentation, essential for sectors with stringent regulatory requirements.
Currently, the platform manages more than 20,000 users, demonstrating its scalability and effectiveness in not just small business settings but also in large enterprise environments, making it a versatile tool for complex organizational structures.
