The full range of Managed Azure Services can be utilized across several platforms and several services, this umbrella of a cloud platform from Microsoft is so powerful in both quantity and quality that managing its expanse of services has given birth to another large industry altogether. Azure services are run on vetted hardware and are managed through approved vendors. A right partner can help you implement Managed Azure services to multiply your network and technological possibilities.
Azure services provide developers / company owners to scale work environments, projects and applications in an integrated public cloud or even remote locations, the potential serviceability of a vendor managed azure service platform includes and is also well beyond the following examples: Security and Compliance of Data Handling, Critical Medical Care, Emergency and Disaster Management Services, Supply Chain Logistics and other integrated services as the Azure cloud platform can even make multiple layers of data available to the right workforce with the help of Azure Identity Management, which is an in-built Active Directory system within Azure. Due to its multitenant structure, data of different users even though if it is on the same server is kept completely isolated from unauthorized users. In short Azure Identity Management is an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system that integrates and simplifies core directory services, application & data access management and identity protection in a single service.
It can differentiate from several users based on access conditions like, organizational role, level of clearance and data sensitivity to give clearance to access data or allow the user to perform certain functions. For e.g. a company approved legal representative will be able to see the legal documents of the company pertaining to the clearance level he is being granted by the admin. The same data would be encapsulated from the R&D team who are freely able to view systems that they are working on. This in-turn ensures a high level of privacy and work efficiency in individual departments, while giving the department heads an astute view of their team’s real time effectiveness.
This Azure Identity IAM is relatively simple to deploy and can provide identity and access management for users with access to systems that are run on the cloud or on a local environment. With its simplistic GUI, it is easy to train staff moderators to operate and manage teams locally and remotely with this service. It is also fairly easy to gain data and analytics on various statistics like Usage Reports and Key Performance Indicators that have been met by various employees. It also helps to observe and spot inconsistent usage patterns which can be further assessed for threats with the help of machine learning based reports to protect data integrity.
One of the unique features of Azure Identity Management is a Multi-Factor Authentication layer where the user requires more than one verification method, this adds a critical and usually impenetrable layer of protection for user sign-ins and transactions. A step higher than this is the Azure RBAC (Resource Based Access Control) which allows granular control to the level of access users can be provided to the resources available. The roles are generally classified as Owner, Contributor, Reader and User Access Administrator where the Owner has full access to all the resources and can provide access to these resources to others as per their role in the organization. A contributor also can create and manage all Azure resources in the given environment but cannot grant any access to anybody else to access the resources whereas a reader can simply view available Azure managed services. And the role of a User Access Administrator is different from the above three roles, where such a user can only manage user access to Azure resources but cannot create new or manage existing Azure resources.
