Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) has been a mainstay of information systems for over 20 years, but it was intended for a different era of computing and business requirements. Its persistence affects IT’s agility, impacts security posture, and limits IT’s capacity to provide the best-of-breed tools that employees expect.

Granting privileged access to an end user’s device is a common practice in organizations. Admins do it to give end users the ability to manage administrative tasks such as downloading applications and accessing resources on their devices. It can be done manually, which is cumbersome and introduces risks. Or it can be managed to improve user productivity without requiring additional IT help or intervention, so that IT can focus on higher priority tasks.

In the dynamic landscape of today’s digital age, companies face an array of challenges — from heightened security concerns and the proliferation of devices, to the complexities of managing distributed workforces spanning multiple time zones and native languages. Navigating these issues becomes even more daunting when the tools available to IT admins and managed service providers (MSPs) are spread across an array of point solutions.

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn from a managed service provider (MSP) who had turned down an opportunity because the prospect used Google Workspace. While I understood their reasoning for doing this, it did get me thinking: Why are MSPs so hesitant to work with Google? I created a casual poll on LinkedIn and the results revealed a significant trend: a majority of MSPs seem to be bypassing Google Workspace as a viable service offering.

As businesses embrace remote work and the transformation to the cloud, the need for robust identity management is key. But what exactly is cloud identity management, and why is it critical? Essentially, cloud identity management orchestrates identity and access management (IAM) in cloud environments and supports the shifting of authentication and authorization processes to the cloud.