Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) is a cloud-based solution for identity and access management within organizations. Instead of building and maintaining their own system, companies use an IDaaS provider's platform.

What is pay-as-you-go?

Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) is a flexible pricing model in which customers pay only for the services or resources they actually use, without upfront costs, long-term contracts, or fixed fees. This model is commonly used in cloud computing, telecommunications, energy, and software services.

What is Identity Management (IdM)?

Identity Management (IdM), or identity administration, is a business process for managing, securing, and controlling digital identities within organizations. It ensures that the right people have access to the right systems, applications, and data.

Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS)

What is an IDaaS?

Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) is a cloud-based Identity and Access Management solution that enables customer organizations to manage identity and access. Instead of investing in an on-premises IAM platform, they use a cost-efficient and scalable IDaaS solution for user authentication, authorization, and identity management. This is often offered through a subscription model based on, for example, the number of connected end users. This service model allows companies to reduce spending on hardware, software, and IT staff.

IDaaS, One of the XaaS Service Models

IDaaS is therefore one of many as-a-Service models, in which services are delivered via the cloud on a pay-per-use or pay-as-you-go basis. Examples include:

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provides customers with a cloud-based infrastructure including servers, storage, and networking. This allows your IT organization to focus entirely on hosting your own applications on that infrastructure. Examples include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offers customers a development and management platform for software developers. They can focus entirely on application development without having to think about the underlying infrastructure. Typical examples include Microsoft Azure and Google App Engine.
The most commonly used term is Software-as-a-Service, the umbrella under which many applications are now delivered from the cloud. Examples range from HR software and accounting solutions to comprehensive CRM software and office suites such as Microsoft 365.
As a specialization of SaaS, many providers deliver specific application services via the cloud. For example, Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS), Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), and Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS).

Benefits of a Cloud-Based Identity Management Solution?

As an organization, you benefit from an Identity and Access Management as-a-Service solution in several ways:

Lower Investments: No investment is required in on-premises infrastructure or software licenses.
Less IT Administration: Updates and maintenance are performed by the IDaaS provider. The customer can focus on functional administration and operational use.
Scalability: With a pay-as-you-go or pay-per-use model, you can scale up or down as the organization grows.
Always State-of-the-Art Information Security: The IDaaS provider specializes in this domain and has the expertise and in-house innovation capabilities.

IDaaS Disadvantages

An IDaaS uses a standard platform, which means there is no room for custom software. Does this also mean the disadvantage of IDaaS is that you have no way to accommodate your own requirements? Fortunately, that is not the case. A well-designed IDaaS platform like HelloID is indeed a standard application, but it also offers sufficient configuration options and APIs. This allows you to fine-tune the service to the specific circumstances and needs of your organization. With an IDaaS, you have everything you need to integrate the platform into daily operations without falling into the trap of true custom software. Custom code is often expensive, hard to maintain, and frequently misused to mask more fundamental issues. Poorly defined policies and sloppily developed business processes are sometimes masked by custom modifications. This approach may work briefly, but it quickly leads to costly and long-running follow-up projects. An IDaaS prevents this.

Example of IDaaS: HelloID

A widely used IDaaS solution is our HelloID platform. With HelloID, we deliver a full IAM cloud solution where Tools4ever manages all technical operations. You pay on a pay-as-you-go basis based on the number of connected users, the modules in use, and the connectors to source and target systems. This gives you full control over costs while you focus on functional administration. HelloID provides four modules:

Access Management

This module augments the standard authentication and authorization capabilities of, for example, directory services. Employees gain simple, fast, and user-friendly access to business cloud applications through Single Sign-On. At the same time, you keep access secure with Multifactor Authentication (MFA).

Provisioning

With the HelloID Provisioning module, you create a connection between the HR system and the user accounts in your IT environment. This automates the entire onboarding, changes, and offboarding process. During onboarding, the new employee automatically receives the correct accounts and access rights. If someone later changes roles or departments, their accounts and access rights are automatically adjusted based on the HR system data. When employment ends, the provisioning functionality ensures that rights are revoked and accounts are deprovisioned. With Role-Based Access Control (or Attribute-Based Access Control), you can be confident that you are always in compliance with privacy and information security policies. You automatically adhere to the Principle of Least Privilege, which requires that each employee has access only to the applications and data needed for their tasks and responsibilities. In addition to optimal security and compliance, you also avoid unnecessary licensing costs, and all changes are recorded for interim security audits.

Service Automation

Our experience is that the provisioning module described above automates roughly 80 percent of all administrative tasks. In addition to the automatically granted access and the standard rights associated with a person's primary role, there are usually many additional requests. For example, someone may temporarily need an expensive application such as Photoshop for a project. Or an employee needs to be assigned to a project folder, someone wants to change their email display name, you want to create a shared mailbox, or you need to reset a password.

HelloID Service Automation is an IDaaS module that streamlines and automates these individual requests for helpdesk staff, managers, and even end users. Such requests are often still handled by second-line administrators directly in backend systems, which creates a significant workload for IT departments. The Service Automation module provides user-friendly administration screens that allow these tasks to be delegated to helpdesk staff. You can also safely delegate actions to team managers or designated key users, and the employee can even handle some requests through a self-service portal.

With configurable workflows, the Service Automation module ensures the right manager or managers are always asked for approval so that you maintain control over all granted permissions. In addition, all requests, approvals, and actual fulfillments are logged automatically.

Governance

Within HelloID, the full identity lifecycle is auditable. All actions are logged, such as creating, enabling, updating, moving, disabling, and deleting accounts. The same applies to granting and revoking permissions. For individually executed changes outside the standard role matrix, you can see exactly who requested a change, who approved it, and what changes it led to in downstream systems. This makes IDaaS usage fully transparent and testable.

HelloID also offers a Governance module. While a standard IAM solution primarily helps the organization get in control, this additional IDaaS capability helps you stay in control. With features such as reconciliation, recertification, and toxic rule management, we prevent internal mismatches between the IAM platform and target systems, maintain tighter control over the use of self-service products, and automatically detect and resolve conflicting business rules.

Want to Learn More About the HelloID IDaaS Solution?

Identity Management is now a central component of your IT security. Users should access applications and data only with their own accounts, and those rights must always be granted on a need-to-know basis. We must also be able to trace all IT activities down to individual users. This makes your Identity Management platform a key element in your information security system. With the HelloID IDaaS solution, you can start quickly without on-premises investments, then roll out additional features and target systems over time. Learn more about the HelloID solution.