In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, businesses are constantly seeking ways to improve productivity while maintaining robust security. However, striking the perfect balance can be a challenge. Increase security and you might create more hurdles for your employees. Prioritize productivity and you might expose your business to vulnerabilities.
The solution? Implementing a comprehensive access governance strategy that simplifies how your business manages its apps and identities. In this article, we’ll explore the three key strategies for achieving the perfect productivity and security balance: centralizing SaaS discovery, automating app access requests, and leveraging AI-powered insights for least-privilege access.
Key 1: Centralize SaaS Discovery
The proliferation of apps has led to extreme levels of fragmented software data. Without a centralized system, businesses often struggle with the lack of visibility into who has access to what, how frequently tools are being used, and whether they are adhering to risk management initiatives.
Addressing this issue is the first step towards building a solid foundation of productivity and security. Not only does centralizing all SaaS discovery enable you to boost team productivity by streamlining your business’s tech stack, managing all your apps in one place also provides the following benefits:
- Enhanced Visibility and Control: Businesses gain a clear view of all the apps in use, who is using them, and how they’re being used. This visibility is crucial for identifying unused or redundant applications, which can then be decommissioned.
- Streamlined Auditing and Compliance: Centralizing SaaS discovery simplifies the auditing process by providing a single source of truth. This makes it easier to track access patterns, identify and remediate anomalies, and ensure that access to sensitive data and applications aligns with regulatory standards.
Key 2: Automate App Access Requests
The process of granting and revoking access to applications can be time-consuming and inefficient, especially in larger organizations. Manually handling access requests not only hampers productivity but also increases the risk of unauthorized access, as delays or human errors can lead to security breaches.
The best way to overcome this challenge is to put access requests in the hands of your employees and automate how they are granted. Automated access requests streamline the process of providing or revoking access, enabling employees to get the tools and data they need without unnecessary delays. This is particularly important for new hires, who can start working productively from day one, and for off-boarding employees, whose access can be promptly revoked to prevent potential security risks.
Automation also reduces the likelihood of human error, ensuring that access is granted or revoked according to predefined policies. This minimizes the chances of unauthorized access or data breaches, while also freeing up IT teams from repetitive tasks and allowing them to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Key 3: Leverage AI-Powered Insights for Least-Privilege Access
Enforcing least-privilege access is one of the most effective ways to mitigate risk in an organization. The principle of least privilege dictates that users should only have the minimum access required to perform their job functions, reducing the risk of insider threats and limiting the damage that can be done if an account is compromised.
Despite the clear advantages, many organizations struggle to implement the least privilege at scale. Manual enforcement is time-consuming and prone to error, leading to "permission creep," where users accumulate more access than necessary as they take on new roles or projects.
This is where AI comes in.
AI is revolutionizing access management by allowing IT and security teams to move from reactive to proactive strategies. No more need for manual audits, static role-based access, or simple inactivity thresholds. AI-powered analytics offer an automated way to manage access permissions by monitoring user behavior, historical data, and patterns of inactivity, and can adjust access based on real-time changes. AI-powered solutions can automatically revoke any unnecessary permissions and grant right-size permissions based on role. This ensures users, whether they are joining, leaving, or moving across your organization, always have the right access. It also helps avoid permissions creep that leads to weakened security.
Achieving the Perfect Balance
Regardless of the size of your business, maintaining a proper balance of productivity and security is crucial to your success. The key to finding this success begins with empowering your IT and security teams with the tools they need to streamline operations and improve how access is managed across your business.
The best place to start is investing in a platform that simplifies your access governance strategy. Doing so will enable you to safeguard your business while also empowering your workforce to operate efficiently.
Want to learn more? Join our webinar to see how these strategies can be leveraged in your onboarding and off-boarding processes.
