Once upon a time, ordering software would involve a physical delivery with a manual setup and availability on designated machines. The rise of cloud technology changed all that, with subscription-based SaaS growing 300% during 2012–2018. This shift in business model, from owning software to renting it, also meant a change in provisioning. Instead of relying on internal resources and expertise, organizations could simply tap into their external partners and providers.

Active Directory (AD) is prolific, with an estimated deployment at 90% of organizations worldwide. Meanwhile, Entra ID deployment is increasing, as is the prevalence of Hybrid environments which deploy both. The widespread use of AD makes the repository a target for cybercriminals. Although rarely discussed, identity, access privileges, and cybercrime are intrinsically linked, with 90% of organizations being victims of at least one identity-related incident in 2023.

“3,205 reported data compromises in the U.S. in 2023, a 78% increase over 2022. 1 In our opinion, this doesn’t even account for unreported breaches. So, it’s no secret that cyber threats are increasing exponentially. According to Gartner, 70% of breached organizations reported significant business disruption. 1 Clearly, the more we include technology in our lives, the more threat actors will exploit digital vulnerabilities that can stall or even shut down an organization.

Identities, computers and groups all need access to resources. But only enough to fulfill a role, and only for as long as they need it. AD Admins, IT leaders, VPs and CISOs recognize this as a foundational part of Zero Trust least privilege models – and as one of the biggest challenges for enterprises. That’s because using native tools for privilege management is complex.

There’s an unfortunate truth about applications and access in the enterprise. Many applications are underutilized. This means patches and updates can fall down the to-do list of already-stretched IT service desks. Naturally, this increases the vulnerabilities – and opportunities for attackers. Risks are compounded when many users retain access they no longer need, especially when it’s access to the most critical and sensitive resources.

Identity management acronyms aren’t anyone’s idea of a fun day out, but successfully securing identities requires carefully stitching together each of these acronyms into a comprehensive identity security solution. In this article, we discuss AM, PAM, IGA, ADM – and how a unified identity platform (UIP) can help you tie them all together. Let’s start by defining each of these acronyms.

One Identity’s suite of IAM solutions includes Active Roles, an AD (Active Directory) management tool designed to increase the security and efficiency of identity environments by consolidating all AD domains and Entra ID tenants onto a single console This ensures consistent enforcement of security policies through automation, enables identity data to be synchronized across the entire network, and reduces the number of accounts which have been erroneously granted access privileges.

There’s no way around it: program management skills are a must for any IAM leaders, lest they wish to preside over a chaotic, disorganized mess. IAM initiatives often involve complex, interconnected systems and processes – and most of all, people. Without a firm grasp of program management, leaders risk delays, overruns and a final implementation that’s more like a Frankenstein’s monster than a well-running solution.