The Identity Imperative in the Cloud

Enterprise IT architectures have evolved dramatically from the days of on-premises monolithic and simple client/server architectures with centralized resources. These architectures, once easily protected by firewalls and other “layered” security solutions, have been replaced by highly distributed service-oriented architectures with components deployed in hybrid environments that include public and private clouds. Although these environments have greatly improved flexibility and resilience, they have also increased the attack surface for those with malicious intent. Security needs to adapt to these changing architectures by focusing on protecting what matters: user identity, data, and workloads.

This Technology Spotlight describes how cloud-based enterprise IT architectures have changed the security equation, raising the importance of identity protection — and increasing the opportunity to protect identities — a key component of cloud security. This document also discusses how chief information security officers (CISOs) must focus on identity management to regain control over their disparate computing environments. This Technology Spotlight discusses Symantec’s Identity Access Manager platform and provides insight for enterprises looking to keep their cloud-based IT environments secure.