What is Identity Lifecycle Management?
An identity lifecycle is the term used to describe the full circle of providing and revoking access for an employee to company IT systems, from when they join an organization to when they leave. Identity lifecycle management, or ILM, is the process of awarding access and removal to IT systems in a business context. Increasingly identity lifecycle management is automated as, especially in larger organizations, undertaking these processes manually can be a point of weakness and create security risks. In today’s modern workplace, employees often need access to numerous IT platforms and software packages, so keeping up with user accounts can become an extremely onerous task if done manually. What starts off as the seemingly simple task of creating identities, managing role changes and dealing with leavers, can quickly become unmanageable as a business grows, resulting in data breaches and productivity issues.
There are several key points in an identity lifecycle where intervention may be required. This starts when an employee joins a company and needs to be provided with access to a variety of IT systems. Permissions will need to be carefully allocated to suit the new employee’s role within the business and this can be a stumbling block as gaining manual approval from management can create delays. The next key stage in the lifecycle is when an employee switches role or gets promoted. This will usually result in a change in the level of permissions granted and potentially also access to new systems. Again, this can be an issue with manual systems as role changes often get overlooked and employees are left with access to platforms unnecessarily. The resulting cost implications can be phenomenal in large organizations if the software is paid for per user. Finally, and possibly the most critical stage of the lifecycle, it is important that employee access gets revoked from all company systems when they leave the business.
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