What is IDaaS and Why is it the Next Big Thing?
BY IT GLUE | November 28, 2017
The rapid pace of evolution in the software-as-a-service model has been more transformative than most people realize. One of the big reasons seems to be the relatively slow uptake of enterprise to cloud services. But MSPs don’t do a lot of enterprise; the focus for most MSPs is the small- and medium-sized enterprise. And that’s exactly the type of company that is driving the rapid growth of cloud. With cloud growing at 25% per year, and valued at $150 billion, that creates a ton of different opportunities.
What is IDaaS?
One of the emerging opportunities, where MSPs stand to gain a lot, is identity-as-a-service (IDaaS). We know that human beings are the biggest source of security risk – they click on things, set easy passwords, write their passwords down and all sorts of other silly things. But as concerns about cybercrime grow, and as small businesses increasingly turn to their MSPs for solutions, IDaaS has emerged as a set of solutions to allow the MSP to manage passwords and identities for their customers.
The Components of IDaaS
At the heart of these tools is single sign-on (SSO), which is the federation of passwords. The end user uses a single sign-on for all different applications – much easier when these applications are cloud-based. Thus, SSO puts the MSP in control of user access to all the apps that the user works with.
The second component to IDaaS is provisioning and deprovisioning. The ease with which the MSP can provide access to a suite of apps – and more importantly the ease with which the MSP can remove this access – is critical to the IDaaS opportunity because it increases the speed at which accounts can be locked down if there is a problem.
Why Your Customers Benefit
For a small business concerned with cybercrime, IDaaS does two things. It reduces the risk associated with password sprawl and poor password handling practices. And it increases the pace at which a compromised user account can be shut down. Given that one-third of cyberattacks target small business, and that the average cost of these attacks to small business is $40,000 per attack, the value of IDaaS for the MSP serving small business clients is just a matter of math. Preventing just one attack is worth so much more than what your customers would pay for IDaaS. So you, the MSP, gets an additional revenue stream, and your clients get greater security.
Why the MSP Benefits
So now you understand the value proposition, just how big is this opportunity anyway? A recent report by Gartner estimates that IDaaS will move from 20% of the market for identity services today to 40% by 2020. The total market size for IDaaS is estimated to be in the range of $1 billion for 2017, and while SAML providers are going to account for a sizeable chunk of that, they are really the behind-the-scenes tools for IDaaS, whereas MSPs are the client-facing side of the opportunity. And in an increasingly competitive marketplace for managed services, providing this additional service can be a point of differentiation from which you draw competitive advantage.
To find out more about how IT Glue can help you take advantage of the IDaaS opportunity, click the link below:
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