Chapter 7
Developing Identity and Access Management Strategies
In This Chapter
Authorizing access to the enterprise
Planning a strategy for identity management
Putting an identity-management solution in place
A network enterprise includes all components, services, software, equipment, and interconnectivity elements in use by an organization. User identification is fundamental to resource access and control and a central standardized mechanism for access control is the element that bridges components of the enterprise, consolidating siloed users and resources into a cohesive whole. Also, without unique user identification, functions such as accountability and resource availability control are unavailable.
This chapter introduces the concepts of Identity and Access Management (IAM), with a particular focus on the process of identity management, which underlies the topics covered in all later chapters.
Introducing Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Identity and Access Management (IAM) combines identity management and access controls in order to facilitate resource availability and to prevent undesirable exposure of your organization’s data. The three steps to IAM are
1. Identify the user.
Credentials are presented that identify the requesting user or service to the enterprise authentication service. Examples of these credentials include a username and password or an access token (such as a smart card) and a personal identification number.
2. Authenticate the user.
The authentication ...
