Identity Management vs. Access Management: What’s the Difference and Why It Matters

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If you want to protect your business from online threats, you need to manage identities and control access effectively. Identity management focuses on verifying who your employees are, while access management ensures they have the right permissions to do their jobs.

Knowing their differences will play a key role in protecting the sensitive data. This article will discuss how identity management and access management differ and why both are critical for modern businesses like yours.

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TL;DR

• Identity Management: Focuses on verifying and managing user identities to ensure only authorized individuals can access systems. Core components include user profiles, authentication methods, and role management.
• Access Management: Defines and controls what authenticated users can access and do within the system, reducing risks of data breaches. Key features include RBAC, MFA, and access control policies.
• IAM Integration: Identity and access management work together to create a robust security framework, combining identity verification with permission controls.
• CloudEagle.ai Features: Automates IAM processes, manages access efficiently, supports compliance (GDPR, SOC Type 2, ISO 27001), and integrates with SSO, finance, and HRIS systems.
• Why CloudEagle.ai?: It enhances IAM by offering automated onboarding/offboarding, app access reviews, privileged access management, and time-based access management to secure SaaS.

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What is Identity Management?

Identity management (IDM) is the process of verifying and managing user identities within your business’s system. Its primary goal is to ensure that the right individuals are accurately identified and securely authenticated before accessing any apps or data.

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In the Identity and Access Management (IAM) framework, IDM focuses on creating and maintaining digital identities as required. As IDM can help you know who has access to your systems, you can maintain control over your environment and reduce security risks.

Identity management has several core components that help you manage and protect user identities effectively:

1. User Profiles

These are digital identifications of individuals in your system, containing key details like usernames, roles, date of joining, email address, designation, contact information, etc. User profiles are one of the most important aspects of assigning access and monitoring activity.

2. Authentication Methods

This ensures that users are who they claim to be through mechanisms like passwords, biometrics, or multi-factor authentication (MFA). Strong authentication reduces the risk of unauthorized access.

3. Identity Lifecycle Management

This involves managing user identities throughout their lifecycle, from creation to deactivation. You can streamline onboarding and manage role changes to prevent orphaned accounts.

4. Role and Group Management

When you define roles and groups, you can standardize permissions and simplify access assignments. This way, you can ensure users have only the necessary access levels.

Now that you know the core components of identity management, let's explore how these come to life in real-world scenarios to help you understand their practical applications.

5. Authentication and Verification

When the employee logs into your system for the first time, authentication methods like multi-factor authentication (MFA) verify their identity. This step ensures only the authorized individual can access their account.

6. Role Updates and Lifecycle Changes

As the employee enters a new department, identity lifecycle management allows you to update their profile and permissions seamlessly. Their old roles are revoked while new ones are applied, maintaining a principle of least privilege.

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What is Access Management?

Access management focuses on controlling what authenticated users can do once they’re inside your system. While identity management ensures you know who the user is, access management defines what they can access and perform.

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In other words, access management involves granting and restricting based on the user’s roles and responsibilities. Its primary role is to ensure that users can only access the resources and data they need to perform their tasks.

Thus, you can minimize the risks of unauthorized access or data breaches. This is extremely important when your business handles a high volume of sensitive data. Here are the key components of access management:

1. Access Control Policies

These are the rules and guidelines that define how and when users can access specific apps. For example, policies may restrict access to sensitive files to specific roles or during certain hours.

2. Permissions

Permissions specify what actions a user can perform within a system. Assigning granular permissions will ensure users only have the capabilities required for their tasks. This will reduce the risk of accidental or intentional misuse.

3. Role-Based Access Control

This approach organizes permissions based on user roles, such as "administrator" or "employee." RBAC simplifies access management by aligning permissions with predefined roles.

4. Multi-Factor Authentication

While primarily part of authentication, MFA plays a significant role in access management by adding an extra layer of security. Even if credentials are compromised, MFA ensures unauthorized users can’t exploit permissions without completing additional verification steps.

These components work together to establish a secure and flexible access management framework. Let’s take a look at a few practical examples.

5. Time-Based Restrictions

Imagine an employee working remotely who only needs access to your database during business hours. Access control policies can implement time-based restrictions. It will automatically deny access outside of predefined working hours to prevent unauthorized use.

6. Temporary Access for Contractors

A third-party contractor may require access to your systems for a limited period. You can grant temporary permissions that expire after the project is complete using access management tools.

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Key Differences Between Identity Management and Access Management

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How Identity and Access Management Work Together

Your business security will depend a lot on the integration of identity management and access management.

Identity verification is the first step, where you will know who the person is. This process confirms that a legitimate user connects their digital identity to your organizational records.

Once authenticated, access management informs you about what users can do. It assigns permissions and enforces access control policies to ensure users can only interact with resources that match their roles and responsibilities.

This interdependence is what makes your security framework strong. You can't trust who is accessing your systems without proper identity verification.

Without proper access controls, even verified users could access sensitive data or perform unauthorized actions, putting your organization at risk. However, when you combine both, you’ll get robust protection against both external threats and internal misuse.

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Best Practices for Implementing IAM in Your Organization

1. Develop Clear Policies for Both Identity and Access

To ensure strong security, it’s essential to create clear, distinct policies for both identity and access management. While these two areas are closely linked, they each require their own focus and guidelines.

For identity management, your policies should outline how you will handle the creation, verification, and deactivation of user identities. This includes procedures for onboarding new users, updating user profiles as roles change, and ensuring that MFA is consistent.

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For access management, the policies should define how permissions are assigned, managed, and revoked. This means setting up role-based access control (RBAC) and establishing clear guidelines for monitoring and auditing access to sensitive resources.

These policies need to complement each other. Identity management lays the groundwork for authentication, while access management ensures that authenticated users only access the resources appropriate to their role.

2. Use Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

This is one of the most important practices you must remember. RBAC and MFA are two powerful strategies that significantly enhance your organization's security posture.

RBAC ensures that users are granted access based on their job roles, limiting their permissions to only what is necessary for their tasks. Defining their roles clearly means minimizing the risk of over-provisioning access. This approach enforces the principle of least privilege, ensuring users only have the minimum access required to perform their duties.

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MFA, on the other hand, adds an additional layer of security by requiring users to verify their identity through more than just a password. This can include something they know (a password), something they have (a phone or security token), or something they are (biometric verification).

When you implement both RBAC and MFA, you can create a robust access control framework that streamlines access and strengthens defenses against security breaches.

3. Leverage Automation for Identity and Access Management

Automating your identity and access management processes can improve efficiency and reduce human error. Manual processes for onboarding, assigning permissions, or deactivating accounts can be mistake-prone, leaving your business vulnerable.

This is where CloudEagle.ai comes into the picture. CloudEagle.ai helps you efficiently discober, optimize, govern, and renew your SaaS applications. Through a unified dashboard, you can seamlessly control user access, permissions, and roles.  

With essential tools, CloudEagle.ai simplifies identity and access management. Its 500+ top-tier integrations, spanning SSO, finance, and HRIS, provide comprehensive visibility to strengthen access governance.

Identity and Access Control

CloudEagle.ai gives you complete transparency into who accesses your applications, the purpose behind it, and their usage patterns. With centralized control, you can efficiently manage access, simplifying everything from intake to provisioning and deprovisioning—all within a single platform.  

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CloudEagle.ai offers easy access to application logs to streamline compliance and security audits. Through the CloudEagle.ai portal, exporting detailed records of who has access to each application is quick and seamless.  

This automation extends to onboarding and offboarding processes. With zero-touch onboarding for both SCIM and non-SCIM apps, employees receive the correct application access from their first day.  

Automated triggers ensure that access is granted or revoked immediately as team members join or leave, while Just-In-Time Access delivers permissions exactly when needed, reducing delays and boosting operational efficiency.

Self-Service App Catalog

CloudEagle.ai simplifies app access requests for both employees and administrators through a self-service app catalog. Administrators receive notifications via Slack and email whenever an employee submits a new access request.  

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Employees can easily view their current app access and request additional apps directly from Slack. If a similar app is already available, they are guided to use it instead of procuring a new one, reducing redundancies.  

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With CloudEagle.ai, you can also grant temporary access to critical systems—such as AWS root—for just a few hours, with automatic revocation once the task is completed. This time-limited access is perfect for contractors and temporary workers, helping you cut licensing costs while eliminating the need for manual access revocation.

Moreover, CloudEagle.ai ensures that privileged accounts don’t remain uncontrolled. It can automate the process of assigning users the appropriate access levels. Ensure only the right individuals have elevated access to critical systems like AWS and NetSuite.

Employee Onboarding and Offboarding

CloudEagle.ai streamlines access management with auto-provisioning workflows, enabling you to assign application access to new users based on their roles and departments. This ensures that new employees have immediate access to the tools they need, boosting productivity from day one.  

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The platform also excels at automated user offboarding, reducing the risks tied to manual access revocation. It can automatically revoke access for inactive accounts after a predefined period of inactivity, ensuring tighter security.  

Take, for instance, how Remediant leveraged CloudEagle.ai to implement seamless automated user provisioning and deprovisioning, enhancing their operational efficiency.

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Compliance Management

Non-compliance with the latest security regulations can lead to data breaches, hefty fines, and reputational harm. Therefore, prioritizing SaaS compliance is a necessity. Yet, handling compliance manually is often complex and time-consuming.  

CloudEagle.ai simplifies this process with certifications like GDPR, SOC Type 2, and ISO 27001. This platform integrates seamlessly with your internal systems, centralizing data collection and providing complete visibility, allowing you to easily monitor and verify the compliance status of all your SaaS applications.

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Conclusion

Hackers can disrupt your business and damage your reputation. To safeguard your organization effectively, you need to implement both identity management and access management.

Identity management ensures you know exactly who is accessing your systems by verifying and managing user identities, while access management controls what those users can do once inside. Together, they form a robust defense against unauthorized access, insider threats, and potential breaches.

You would need CloudEagle.ai in addition to IDP like Okta. If you’re looking for a reliable platform to manage access and identity, CloudEagle.ai should be your go-to choice. Schedule a demo with our experts and they will guide you though complete IAM features.

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