A Web of Access – Identity and Security in the Middle Market 

The quick uptake of web based applications, employees using their own personal devices and working remotely has forced a fundamental shift in how IT teams meet their security obligations. Identity Management and security access solutions are now considered top priorities for mid-market enterprises.

60% of IT Managers cite security concerns due to lack of visibility into application access and threats to password security

The National Center for the Middle Market found that Identity management and access solutions ranked above cloud security solutions in terms of importance. This is not surprising given that amount of time IT admins spend deploying and managing cyber security systems. 

In the past, securing the enterprise perimeter and network access points has been the primary focus of mid-market IT teams but with the advent of Identity as a Service (IDAAS) the pressure is off.

IDAAS  covers all aspects of Identity Access Management (IAM) and allows small IT teams to partner with trusted experts for single sign-on, employee portals, mobility management and multi-factor authentication. More importantly, IDAAS providers are experts at protecting the growing amount of data contained in applications outside of the company network.  Working with Enablis, providers like Okta allow access to these apps and their data to be centrally managed for both efficiency and security.

91% of IT Managers see Identity Management as a key enabler of digital business initiatives– Okta

IDAAS solutions will become critical to the middle-market as small IT teams are hungry for ways to better manage the IT landscape whilst still positioning themselves as a partner to the business and an asset to the end users. From an organisation’s perspective, time spent improving the business rather than ‘keeping the lights on’ drives greater value all round. Early adopters of IDAAS solutions find that creating a consistent identity for end users, speeds up adoption of new applications and simplifies permissions with access management.

The most progressive organisations are even using IDAAS to streamline their digital transformations and cloud migration. The National Center for the Middle Market found that organisations who had established relationships with IDAAS vendors were quicker to migrate core business systems to the cloud and that overall these partnerships allowed IT leaders to focus on application deployment and digital goals.

– Jon Evans, CEO