Cloud security has made it significantly easier for companies to adopt the latest technology. But a true digital transformation requires more significant control over your software and data. For many organizations, that means moving beyond ad hoc entitlements based on “shadow IT” to managing access centrally in the form of CIEM (an acronym for Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management).
A recent study by IDC found that the global market for these platforms will grow from $1.5 billion in 2018 to $5.8 billion by 2023, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30%. So if you are thinking of CIEM and wondering why organizations are rapidly adopting it, here are some answers.
How Does Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management Work?
Recently, organizations have increasingly turned to cloud platforms for digital transformation. From IoT ecosystems to new AI initiatives, companies find that the public cloud provides an effective way to quickly launch new projects with minimal barriers between IT and business teams.
However, this newfound agility often comes at a cost. Without proper infrastructure entitlement management, employees can copy data to unauthorized cloud storage platforms or download software to which they should not have access.
And, because shadow IT has no centralized visibility, IT and business teams can spend countless hours tracking down and deleting unauthorized data and software. The result is loss of revenue and customer information, significant security risks, and the potential for compliance violations.
However, with CIEM, companies switch from ad hoc cloud entitlements to an automated platform that centralizes their public cloud services under a consistent policy managed by the company itself. The system provides tighter security controls and an audit trail of user activity for compliance and troubleshooting purposes.
Why Should You Opt For These Solutions?
Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management is intended to offer greater control over public cloud services without disrupting the organization’s agility. It does this by providing visibility into all activities related to public cloud usage, enforcing compliance requirements, and enabling full audit capabilities across users and devices.
The benefits of Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management are clear. By managing entitlements centrally, you can achieve the following:
Enhanced Security and Control – Organizations can risk losing sensitive company data if they do not secure their entitlements with solid policies. With CIEM, you can stop unlawful cloud usage with granular controls over actions like copying, sharing, saving, and downloading.
You can also prevent employees from using unauthorized applications through customized policies that allow only services accessed via a web browser.
A Complete Picture of Cloud Usage – As companies embrace CIEMs, they gain a better understanding of cloud use throughout the enterprise. As a result, they can identify wasteful spending on cloud services, track and control data sprawl, and better understand how the cloud is used to power business initiatives.
Ease of Compliance – A centralized entitlement management system can help organizations meet compliance requirements for audits and data privacy regulations such as GDPR. By tracking user activity and providing an audit trail, Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management solutions make it easy to comply with regulations by showing employees precisely what they can and cannot do.
Innovative Solutions – To achieve digital transformation, you need to build new applications that solve problems for your customers and help drive business growth. CIEMs ensure that the teams building these innovative solutions have the right cloud resources to accomplish their tasks. As a result, more of their energy can be spent on innovation rather than struggling to make what they need available.
Detailed Audit Trail – Centralized infrastructure entitlement management involves collecting cloud usage data from all authorized endpoints and storing it in a single database accessible only by the IT team. This detailed audit trail of who used which resources and when enables decision-makers to identify wasteful spending and unauthorized use of cloud services quickly.
Reduced Costs – Shadow IT can be expensive, as employees often turn to unauthorized cloud services that offer more features and flexibility than the sanctioned solutions provided by IT. When companies deploy a CIEM solution, they can reduce these costs by identifying and adopting authorized cloud services that meet the needs of their employees.
Improved Resource Planning – Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management solutions help better manage cloud resources. By centralizing entitlement management and giving visibility into which users are consuming which services, Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement enables IT, teams, to decide what applications need additional help.
The result can be increased productivity and reduced frustration for developers who want to build the next big thing but do not have the cloud resources they need at their fingertips.
As companies move to the cloud for digital transformation, more and more organizations are opting for centralized infrastructure entitlement management solutions. These systems provide enhanced security and control over cloud services and a complete picture of cloud usage throughout the enterprise.