No matter where you currently are on the “return” continuum, some form of accentuated remote work, it seems- it is here to stay. The days of 30%ish of your workforce remotely accessing your systems sometimes are in the past.
Vast swaths of your workforce will continue outside on prem for the foreseeable future. And so, endpoint security and identity management have found a dovetail moment.
IAM history
The birth of the Birth Certificate happened in the 1850s followed by drivers licenses at the turn of the century and passports in the roaring 1920s. The 1960s brought passwords for file privacy and we all gained access to the information superhighway the 1990s. Enron accounting netted us Sarbanes-Oxley, which provided the market for identity management.
What is the history of Endpoint security?
The late 90s brought us antivirus, which ushered in the cloud in the 00’s. The Target breach, of course, changed everything in 2013 and the Endpoint Protection Platform was born. Modern endpoint security has evolved to include detect and respond capabilities.
Your systems and your users
With your systems and your users, both being mostly remote threat vectors are innumerable. Locking down endpoint security is table stakes. In fact, our upcoming Mid-Year Report uncovers the fact that Endpoint security went from the fifth highest to the second highest budget spend in the past six months. So that covers the systems and the tools, but what about the people?
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Shoving the people through a VPN or RDS or VDI is table stakes. However, credential management, third-party accountability, handcuffing productivity and yes-access management are all issues.
Access is on or off for my solutions thus more security is needed. That is where and why IAM solutions meet endpoint security.
And there are some IAM solutions that do in fact provide you with the ability to amplify productivity. Please see the Tech Demo Okta’s Jefferson Haw took me through.
Based on your system make-up and technology stack, that plug-and-play timeline is potentially going to be extensive. On the other side of that implementation though, looks to be a pretty seamless playground of efficiency and productivity for your users.
Budgets are not what they used to be the upcoming Mid-Year Report also shines a light on the fact that most budgets are now flat or downward facing which is the inverse of the direction we were headed just one year ago.
Therefore, investment decisions are more delicate than ever. But mindset doesn’t cost you a dime. Give another look at the Venn diagram that now is your endpoint security and access management and please reaffirm your systems, your users and you are all set.