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More About Identity Governance
Overview
An existing on-premise, complex Identity Governance implementation is the enemy for organizations that want to respond to changing conditions quickly and govern new applications without months of lead time. In this case study of an enterprise-level financial company, you’ll get insight into the shift from on-premise, highly customized Identity Governance to a customizable, but easier-to-use cloud-based Identity Governance solution- IdentityNow.
The Challenge
With over 15,000 employees, hundreds of billions of dollars under management, and a growing suite of more than 250 applications to keep secure, this financial company needed an Identity Governance solution that took less effort to support and would grow with the company. The company’s existing Identity Governance implementation was a complex on-premise solution that was running on out-ofdate technologies. Options for moving forward included upgrading the existing software, switching to a different on-premise solution, or migrating to a SaaS platform. The existing solution had been in place for several years, but there was growing dissatisfaction with it. The cost and effort to upgrade the highly customized solution was substantial. The effort was comparable to re-implementing on a new platform. Nearly all 250 applications governed by the system were completely disconnected from the target system; fulfillment was done manually and the systems were not in sync. Additionally, the infrastructure for the upgraded version was very similar to the existing version, and ongoing effort to patch and maintain it would not be reduced. Another challenge was that onboarding new applications was complex and time-consuming. Finally, while the software lent itself to supporting custom processes, the cost and effort of maintaining those customizations was too high. Something more agile that required less support was necessary.
The Solution
The financial company opted for a cloud-first approach to take advantage of the agility and simplicity naturally provided by a SaaS platform. In late 2020, Zirous staff started working with the company’s security staff, management, and business stakeholders to implement IdentityNow. The company’s staff wanted to take a very active role in the implementation, so Zirous resources worked side by side with their team to ensure they had a good understanding of how to configure and support the new Identity Governance tool. The team began by onboarding new systems to IdentityNow that were not previously governed, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Azure Active Directory, DMZ Active Directory domains, and home-grown applications.
The Impact
IdentityNow reduced the amount of time necessary to provide ongoing support. Continuous release of enhancements made the tool responsive to the changing needs of the business while minimizing time spent on supporting the system, connectors, and underlying infrastructure. Bugs are rapidly addressed and newly requested functionality is routinely available within months, all without the need for the company’s security team to apply any patches or take any outages. Many previously disconnected applications suffered from the need for manual provisioning and a lack of synchronization with the target system. IdentityNow allows applications with diverse API sets to be completely connected. Even those applications that do not have an API set or have little activity can be partially connected by reconciling with the target system using flat files. Access certification is being performed on more applications than ever before. The security team enjoys the ease of creating certifications through simple queries. Approval processes are now controlled by the business owners through simple configuration. Changes to the number or type of approvals no longer need to be performed by developers with specialized knowledge. Most of the configuration necessary to onboarding new applications can now be performed through the UI without any specialized technical knowledge. Basic application onboarding can be performed in as little as a few hours. A simple, REST-based API suite allows the security team to easily perform more complex tasks. Overall, IdentityNow is allowing the financial company to reduce risk and rapidly respond to business needs without adding more of a burden to their technical staff.
Quick Facts
Company
Labster is an award-winning company that has changed the way science is taught. Their virtual labs enable simulated learning environments so lab experiments, abstract concepts and theories can be explored without stepping into a physical lab. The future of education has been changed in this 3D universe that enables curiosity and learning and highlights the connection between science and the real-world. Educational entities and global leading institutions are already seeing the impact of this empowering platform.
Technologies Involved
- Marketo
- Demandbase
- Zoom
Highlights
- A fast growing e-learning company was seeking a more affective marketing automation system that was flexible and enabled personalization at scale. They turned to Zirous experts and Adobe Marketo.
- Marketo efficiently enabled Labster to better utilize their data, gave a 360 degree view of prospects, and fostered collaboration between marketing, business development, and sales teams.
- Quick, tangible improvements to marketing efficiency, transparency, and accessibility were apparent. Direct positive client feedback.
