Securing Cloud and Mobility

8Identity Management for Private Clouds

8.1 Layers of Identities

There is a vast difference between identities and accounts. An identity can be mapped to a person. An account is an arbitrary profile that has been given access to a program. A person can be mapped to many accounts depending on his or her role(s) in the organization. Nonpersons can be mapped to accounts to fulfill a programmatic function (e.g., service accounts, test accounts, etc.). Each layer within your cloud implementation has accounts that are used by identities in a designated role:

• Enterprise directory access: For most organizations, this is typically your Active Directory implementation.

• Network logons: This allows your network administrators to access network ...