How Your Cybersecurity Budget May Be Suffering from Your IAM Solution

Written by BIO-key Team | Jan 29, 2021 3:00:00 PM

The pressure to find or update your IAM solutions is at an all-time high. But when faced with this pressure, you may be choosing an IAM solution that delivers unexpected costs in overhead and licensing fees.

According to Gartner, Inc., by not looking at alternative or even open-source options you could be missing out on as high as 25% savings in your IAM budget.

When rushing to find an Identity & Access Management (IAM) solution, you may end up with unexpected costs for a solution that doesn't best fit your IAM strategy. Unexpected and complicated licensing costs are the first area where cybersecurity budgets can be taken over.

Oftentimes, larger vendors offer starting packages or pricing that entices you to start using their suite of solutions. Or even a vendor you may already have, such as Microsoft, offers you "free" capabilities or steep discounts, with the caveat that you need to adjust your strategy and migrate to the cloud. However, when you go to expand on your use of these solutions you will suddenly face high licensing fees, and it will be too late to turn back.

Total Cost of Ownership

If you choose an IAM solution that does not fit your IAM strategy, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) can quickly rise. Along with the initial licensing costs, there are many other factors that go beyond the initial investment of a solution that can impact the TCO.

For example, certain authentication methods, such as hardware tokens and phone-based methods appear to be affordable in the beginning. However, over time, these can quickly overrun a cybersecurity budget with unexpected overhead. With hardware tokens, the initial token can be low cost, but then you get into the distribution of the tokens, providing backups and replacements to all users, and it quickly drives up the cost.

With the common approach of using phone-based authentication methods, new regulations are requiring organizations to cover the cost of their employees' SMS plans on their personal devices - something that all too often isn't factored in when these methods are selected.

Also where your IAM solution is deployed can have a significant cost implication. Going with an on-premises IAM solution can put additional overhead and stress on the IT team, with on-premises IAM solutions requiring strong in-house expertise to be maintained.

Budgeting these costs can be a challenge and hard to justify when there are more affordable authentication methods, such as biometrics, and cloud-based alternatives.

Finding an Affordable Solution is not Impossible

Overall, a solution that doesn't support your IAM strategy will quickly result in not only increased costs but also present limitations that negatively impact your users' experience.

However, that is not to say that finding an appropriate and affordable solution is impossible. As recommended it is important to go beyond evaluating the "obvious" choices on the market and look towards alternative and open source options. Evaluating authentication methods such as biometrics as an alternative to hardware tokens and phone-based methods is also a best practice.

The main point is to make sure you look for a solution that fits within your IAM strategy and cybersecurity budget. Be aware of the actual costs and avoid complicated, difficult-to-understand pricing models. Just because something is "free" doesn't mean it will be in the long run.

PortalGuard IDaaS Delivers Lower TCO

At almost half the cost of competitors, PortalGuard IDaaS is affordable for any security budget and offers flexible options to be able to adapt to fit your IAM strategy and reduce TCO. Licensing is simple, easy to understand, and does not come with any "surprises". With industry-leading biometric authentication integrated into the platform, PortalGuard provides you with a low-cost alternative to more expensive authentication methods and IAM solutions.

It is important to know your options when it comes to IAM.

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