Hercules was a myth. That he was the strongest man to ever live is a misconception. The mythologies of other cultures have also spoken of people of unsurpassed physical prowess, such as Bhima from the Mahabharata story of ancient India who came to possess the strength of 10,000 elephants after drinking a brew prepared by the mystic Naga people.
But some myths and misconceptions are entwined. Take the domain of Identity and Access Management for instance.
1.The Public Cloud Is the Only Future
It is commonly believed that the public cloud is the only future of IT environments. People say that everything will be hosted in the public cloud soon and that local environments will be all but forgotten. This is not true. For instance, sectors such as banking still choose and will continue to choose on-premise environments for critical data security. Another example is the pharmaceutical industry where devices such as HPLC machines process hypersensitive data such as the formulas for various drugs. These machines also need to be integrated with the IAM environment and cannot simply be moved to the cloud.
2. IAM Solutions that support Thick-client apps do not exist
A related myth is that there are no solutions that can support IAM for environments such as the banking and pharmaceutical ones. In fact, thick-client apps are used in most businesses today at some time or another. ERPs such as SAP, for instance, are thick-client apps. It is believed that SSO and provisioning to these apps, shop-floor machines and various manufacturing devices simply do not exist. In fact, Cross Identity holds a patent for technology that allows thick-client apps to be included in the IAM environment.
3. There are no tailored IAM solutions, only generic ones
It is true that that there are only a handful of solutions that are tailored to a size or industry segment, but they do exist. Cross Identity CI, for example, was built 100% from the ground up for SMBs. It is a kind of ‘Lite IAM’ that enables small and medium organizations to experience the benefits of Identity and Access Management without investing in complicated and expensive solutions. Cross Identity Niche Identity, on the other hand, has various editions that work perfectly for different industries such as Banking, BPOs, Pharma, Manufacturing and Healthcare.
4. IAM is too expensive for SMBs
While this thought might have held some truth in the past, there are solutions that are not too expensive for SMBs and yet are feature-rich and reliable. Cross Identity CI, for instance, offers an ideal price-point for small and medium businesses.
5. IAM solutions take too long to implement and technology will change by the time my solution is implemented
This is true of traditional technologies and even of a few IDaaS ones. Solutions (till now) have been notorious for not delivering what they were supposed to or delivering it only after months (or even years.) Most better IDaaS technologies today only take a few months to fully implement, and Cross Identity solutions only a few weeks.
6. More features equal a better solution and a good solution must have pretty much every IAM feature possible.
This misconception applies not only to Identity and Access Management but to all goods and services in general. A good buyer knows to find a product that matches his needs, not one that has the most insistent advertising or seemingly the largest number of features.
IAM is no different.
A recent survey indicated that only 24% of smart phone features are used by 94% of users. Identity and Access Management solutions are similar in this regard. A good solution is one that fits your needs and your price-point, nothing more and nothing less. A highly feature rich solution has two potential issues: a) What is made in width of coverage is lost in depth and quality. Most products (this too applies to all industries) that do not focus on a limited number of features have a kitchen-sink attitude and have a poor foundation. b) It looks good on paper and may get a sanction from top-brass easily, but the blowback when the product isn’t of quality will also incite negativity from the same top-brass just as easily.
We hope that we have dispelled some common myths about Identity and Access Management and sheds some light on the truth. Cross Identity is a highly innovative company that holds 3 patents for IAM technology and always surprises by creating real solutions to real needs at realistic prices. We single-handedly dispel some of these myths and are proud of it.
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