As Cyber Attacks Grow, Data Center Operators Can Bring Value-Added Services to Enterprises Leveraging Cloud-Based Access Management Services

No threat facing businesses today has grown as fast, or in a manner as difficult to understand, as the danger from cyberattacks. Cyber threats are increasing in both volume and sophistication, and as the world continues to become more digital with every passing day, cyber threats will only keep growing in both aspects. As a result, organizations today are turning to robust cybersecurity solutions, such as Privileged Access Management (PAM), to keep both their data and their customer's data safe.

PAM refers to a class of solutions that help secure, control, manage, and monitor privileged access to critical assets. Privileged access is the gateway to an organization's most valuable assets, with nearly all advanced cyber-attacks exploiting privileged accounts, leading organizations today to recognize the importance of protecting those accounts.

"Privileged access is the access most often targeted by cybersecurity threats because it leads to the most valuable and confidential information, such as customer identities, financial information, and personal data," said Mustafa Cantekin, Solutions Architect from Ironsphere, a Privileged Access Management solutions company, when asked about the importance of PAM. "A well-designed PAM software lets you restrict access to sensitive systems, require additional approval processes, force multi-factor authentication for privileged accounts, and quickly rotate all passwords to prevent further access by the attackers."

However, many organizations still do not have a plan in place to secure privileged accounts, credentials, and secrets. This disparity is often due to organizations believing that they do not have, or do not think they have, the resources to effectively and efficiently manage a PAM solution, given the high cost and complexity associated with on-premises installation, expensive maintenance costs, the requirement for internal expertise, and limited human resources to manage a solution.

The solution to this problem for companies lies in PAM as a Service, which makes PAM implementation easier, more flexible, faster, less expensive, and easier to evolve as new threats surface each year. PAM as a Service is a critical initiative for organizations that simply do not have the resources to deploy and maintain an on-premises PAM solution or if they would instead like to allocate precious internal resources elsewhere.

"PAM as a Service is a great way for organizations to quickly secure their critical resources and systems without the need to manage additional infrastructure," said Cantekin. "By implementing PAM as a Service, organizations can have all the benefits of a strong PAM implementation, without burdening their IT teams with managing additional infrastructure or doing upgrades."

PAM as a Service solution allows Data Center Service Providers to create tenants and assign administrators to each tenant, in which the tenant admin has the privilege of setting roles and access user permissions within the tenant environment. Tenants are logically isolated from each other, and each tenant's data remains invisible to other tenants. And for data security purposes, a separate schema is created on the database for each tenant.

Finally, managing PAM as a Service through a single platform will increase the visibility of the operations, resulting in faster response rates to incidents. Once all set up, the benefits for companies that come from using PAM as a Service are bountiful, Cantekin explained.

"Fast deployment without added burden on internal teams, easy integration with various IT systems, such as ticketing, SIEM, and email servers, and high availability with the Data Center's existing capabilities are just the start," said Cantekin. "Other benefits include flexible licensing models, zero integration/upgrade efforts for enterprise customers, subscription models supporting monthly recurring revenue for data center operators while saving their customers' money."

Ironsphere's PAM as a Service offering also brings Ironsphere's multi-tenancy, which is a value-added feature for Data Center Service Providers, enabling them to offer PAM as a Service to their customer portfolio. With multi-tenancy, Data Center Service Providers can create multiple instances with partitioned domains that ensure greater security and process automation. Multiple isolated and virtually separated services can serve different customers as if they have their own dedicated instance.

As cybercriminals continue to grow in numbers, organizations will seek to end up with a next-gen PAM option that will not only keep it and its employees more secure but also support business operations and satisfy ever-changing compliance mandates in an organic and profitable manner.

"When looking for a true next-gen PAM solution, a vendor equipped to achieve this identity-centered approach to security provides you with the flexibility to use whatever technology you use today for existing processes and can add value to those processes without introducing any friction," said Cantekin. "Ironsphere's PAM as a Service solution offers many benefits to Data Center Service Providers and companies looking for a PAM solution to protect their assets at private data centers."