The (Identity Security) Easy Button

Remember the “easy button” from Staples that was all the rage in the workplace a few years ago?

Well, I get this question all the time – is there a way to make this any easier, like an “easy button” for identity security?

And truth be told, for what we do, the value we provide to customers, there isn’t an “easy button,” at least not in the traditional sense, but we do make a complex set of issues “easier.”

You see, easy problems are solved easily. And other identity vendors will stake the claim that they will make it “easy” for customers to breeze right through their identity challenges, no matter what—no need for services, get rid of these long and expensive projects, and automate with the “easy button.”

But the fact is, identity security is not an easy problem, nor is it easily solved. Where SailPoint shines is in addressing identity complexity on behalf of our customers. We take that complexity on for our customers, so they don’t have to. And we do it without stripping down identity functionality, taking core capabilities to the bare minimum so that we can say we used that “easy button” for them. Instead, we simplify where we can while maintaining the sophistication required to solve these complex identity challenges for our customers.

For example, we have a major financial services company as a customer. They have well over 140,000 identities tied to more than 8,500 applications, driving millions of entitlements. These are serious numbers to manage. There is no “easy button” in the world big enough to solve that without some level of sophistication and, most certainly, without the aid of AI to drive autonomous identity decision-making. Our ultimate objective is to help accelerate our customers’ business while securing every identity and every single access point and doing all of that with the speed and accuracy only SailPoint can deliver.

For companies today to be truly secure, they need to lean in on the notion that identity security is not only foundational to securing their business but, given how quickly today’s business evolves, identity needs to also be dynamic to keep pace. There is too much to do, too much to secure, too many moving parts to the business to manage, and so often being done with old, tired software and processes.

So, what’s the answer, then? Well, the first thing you have to do is admit you have a problem. Take a step back and ask yourself, “what is my enterprise identity strategy?” And “who owns it?” If you can’t definitively answer these questions, you need to do that first. Create that “lightbulb moment” across the org – identity security can’t be a project. It has to be core to the business, starting with having a clearly defined strategy and buy-in across the business. This is where we can help, acting as your trusted advisor along the way. We’ve been at the identity security game for more than 15 years, we have seen it all, and we will arm you accordingly.

I’ll say it again — there is no easy button in identity. And, contrary to popular belief, that’s actually the wrong way to think about solving the problem, to my earlier point. Instead, companies today need to embrace the next generation of identity security, one that not only uncovers pockets of risk but then shifts into autonomous mode, speeding along with the identity decisions that will mitigate and shut down those risks. The enterprise is too complex and full of a maze of applications, data, and infrastructure, all with varying levels of access, some with too much access, others with access they don’t ever even use (which is an issue in and of itself).

The bottom line is this: the complexities and nuances that makeup today’s enterprise requires a complex solution to solve complex challenges. But it doesn’t have to be difficult. It doesn’t have to be laborious. It doesn’t have to take years to solve. It just takes the right solution – and the right identity security partner – to not only address the problem but help you to elevate your approach to securing your ever-evolving, ever-changing workforce.

Identity security is not an “easy button,” and that’s a good thing. What identity security solves is the hard problems. We’ll leave the easy problems for someone else to solve.