Identity Management In Cloud Computing

This paper discusses the adoption of cloud computing by many businesses and organizations. Cloud adoption has many benefits such as reduced IT costs, and accelerated adoption of new services. However, this accelerated adoption present challenges to effective Identity Management. Many existing Identity Management problems exist in cloud computing, but are further complicated. Now IT professionals must think outside the realm of the internal IT infrastructure to integrate cloud services into the organization. User provisioning/deprovisioning, credential management, auditing/access monitoring, and federal regulation compliance must be considered across the boundaries of the internal organization's network. Traditional Identity Management systems can be leveraged to solve these issues. Most cloud service providers have means to integrate on-premise Identity Management systems and identity records into their services. This requires bridiging and/or proxy systems for on-premise resources to interact with cloud services. Vendors such as Microsoft andCelestix provide such systems that bridge between on-premise and the cloud. New solutions are also being developed and adopted with a “cloud first” approach in the form of Identity as a Service (IDaaS). This is an evolving new approach that has potential to also revolutionize how Identity Management is conducted in organizations. Any solutions adopted to meet cloud Identity Management challenges must still comply with organizational and federal regulation requirements.