Hosted Identity Services: Scaling Security in the Age of Mobility

The rapid expansion of connected devices is a double-edged sword for businesses. On one hand, mobility, cloud, and BYOD innovations enable unprecedented flexibility, collaboration, and ease of access for employees. Fifty percent of employers will adopt BYOD policies by 2017, and 90 percent of American workers are already using their own smartphones for work.[1] But this flexibility comes with a cost: as endpoints multiply, controlling network access becomes increasingly difficult. The vast majority – 90 percent – of organizations lack full awareness of all of the devices accessing their network.[2] At the same time, insiders perpetrate 34 percent of all cybercrimes highlighting the key role of identity access management in maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture.[3]

Cutting back on network access is not an option for companies trying to grow in today’s fast-evolving business climate. But managing the access control risks of expanded networks requires substantial financial and time investments in infrastructure and personnel to construct, support, and manage network access controls. Support and management can consume resources and prevent IT personnel from focusing on core IT security functions. And, most critically, solutions that do not scale with your business as it grows place more pressure on infrastructure, people, and time.

To help organizations combat barriers to owning a simultaneously secure and accessible network, we are unveiling Cisco Hosted Identity Services to provide growing businesses with flexible and scalable solutions for network access control. These services are designed to:

Monitor network access

Enforce context-aware and role-based identity access in accordance with company policy

Enable secure connections on wired, wireless, and VPN connections across a range of devices

Provide consistent and straightforward user experiences

Cisco Hosted Identity Services are hosted network access control services that provide context-aware identity enforcement by automating the management and permissions of user and device identity for access to an organization’s network resources. This cloud-based subscription offering provides the full benefits of market-leading network access control capabilities with an enhanced user experience and flexibility to scale, equipping organizations with visibility and control across their networks. Cisco hosts and owns the entire solution, so clients receive the full benefits of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) 24×7, including encrypted communications and context-awareness for identity enforcement. This service also integrates Cisco TrustSec capabilities for role-based network segmentation to maintain consistent access policies as resources move in mobile and virtualized networks. The result is quick deployment, a shift from capital to operating expenses, and scalability.

Our subscription-based Hosted Identity Services grow with your organization, allowing you to manage capital expenses and build a security strategy that will keep you protected while helping you grow. Hosted Identity Services are a part of Cisco’s broader portfolio of Managed Security Services, which provide end-to-end security solutions that are customized to meet customer needs.

[1] “Gartner Predicts by 2017, Half of Employers will Require Employees to Supply Their Own Device for Work Purposes.” Gartner. May 1, 2013. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2466615

“BYOD Insights 2013.” Cisco. 2013. http://www.ciscomcon.com/sw/swchannel/registration/internet/registration.cfm?SWAPPID=91&RegPageID=350200&SWTHEMEID=12949

[2] Galera, Bruno. “Emerging Trends for BYOD in 2014.” LERA Blog. 2014. http://lerablog.org/business/it/emerging-trends-for-byod-in-2014/

[3] “Key Findings from the 2013 US State of Cybercrime Survey.” PWC. June, 2013. Page 9. http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/increasing-it-effectiveness/publications/assets/us-state-of-cybercrime.pdf