Making Management More Manageable with Google Cloud Identity & Access Management

Back in 2016, Google announced the release of their brand-new enterprise-focused "Identity and Access Management" portfolio for the Google Cloud Platform. The "IAM" toolset is designed to give users the opportunity to assign specific permissions to cloud platform resources, using pre-defined roles.

If that all sounds a bit too complex for you, Google's Identity & Access management basically just gives administrators the opportunity to control who can do what in their cloud network. In a world where it's more important than ever for administrators to have complete transparency into their privacy and security strategies, Google's Cloud IAM allows leaders to determine who should have specific authorities on the cloud.

What's more, when you sign up for the Google Cloud system, the IAM solution is available to users at no extra cost. All you need to do is go to the "Manage Resources" page on your GCP console and you can get started in no time.

What Exactly Does Google Cloud IAM Do?

Control is crucial in any cloud environment. Administrators need to know who can change different features within their infrastructure, set up new projects, and more. Google Cloud Identity & Access Management allows administrators to choose who should be able to act on specific resources. This means that administrators have the control and visibility they need to manage their cloud resources from a single easy-to-use interface.

In an established enterprise with dozens, or even hundreds of users, Cloud IAM gives the admin a unified overview of permissions, security, and privacy across the organization. What's more, it comes with built-in auditing features to assist with compliance.

One of the best features of Google Cloud IAM is the fact that it's perfect for facilitating the remote or digital working environment. From the cloud, administrators can allow employees to work anywhere, on any device, with nothing but a single click. There's even a single sign-on solution which supports OpenID and SAML 2.0 and works alongside hundreds of integrated applications out of the box.

The Cloud Identity and Access Management service also allows companies to remain agile and innovative in hybrid cloud environments. You can seamlessly integrate your on-premise, and cloud-based directories onto a single and highly secure "Identity as a Service" platform. Because all of your identities are managed in one place, it's easier to enforce company-wide security policies for corporate and personal devices. Depending on the specific goals of your company, you might even choose to support Bring Your Own Device policies, without having to compromise on enterprise-grade security policies.

Administrators can lock screens, find devices, and even wipe data all from the same console they use to manage apps and users throughout day-to-day operations.

The Features of Google Cloud IAM

Google Cloud IAM makes it simpler to control resources and permissions in the enterprise environment. With fine-grained access control, administrators can enjoy complete visibility over their cloud resources. Features include:

• High-level granular control: Administrators can grant roles and permissions on state-of-the-art granular levels, rather than just assigning access according to project level. You could even set up an IAM policy that gives someone a "Subscriber" role on Cloud Pub/Sub.

• Single Sign-On: Google is all about supporting simplicity with the GCP. The Cloud IAM solution provides a consistent and simple interface for all cloud platform services. Learn a single control interface and apply that to Cloud Platform Resources.

• Flexibility: Before Google introduced Cloud IAM, administrators could only grant Viewer, Editor, or "Owner" roles to their users. Now, IAM ensures that company leaders can access a range of different roles straight out of the box, including those for specific systems on the Google Cloud Platform.

• Built-In Audit: To help improve compliance in your organization, you can access a full audit trail with Google Cloud IAM.

• Cloud Identity Support: Cloud IAM comes with support for all standard Google accounts. You can create policies that grant permissions to specific groups, service accounts, or hosted domains. Or you can design a policy that offers permissions to Google Account holders using the Cloud Identity platform.

All that, and Google Cloud IAM is available at no additional cost for GCP users. You're only charged for your use of other services on the Cloud Platform.

Built on Google Cloud Identity

The Google Cloud Identity and Access Management tool works on "Google Identity". This managed "as-a-service" solution allows administrators to easily sync or create user accounts across projects and applications at their leisure. Additionally, cloud identity makes it easier to manage and provision user groups, set up single sign-on solutions, and configure multi-factor authentication systems all from the Google Admin Console. Cloud Identity provides access to the complete GCP organization, which means that administrators can manage all of their projects form the same central cloud resource manager.

Google Cloud IAM provides the broad network of tools that companies need to manage permissions with as little stress as possible, and plenty of opportunities for automation. You can map specific job functions within a company to certain roles and groups, and users will only be able to access the tools they need to get their job done - nothing more. Additionally, the granular nature of Cloud IAM means that administrators can grant or remove cloud resource permissions at the most fine-grain levels.

Because Google understands how important administration is in the cloud environment, they've worked to make the IAM system as simple and intuitive as possible. You can set up projects and work groups in a matter of seconds from a clean and simple universal interface with access to all the Cloud Platforms you could possibly need.

What's more, for compliance purposes, administrators can access a complete audit trail of permissions removal, authorization, and delegation. Google Cloud Identity and Access Management allow you to control privacy and security in your business your way, so you can rest assured that your company strategies follow your rules.

To find out more about Cloud Identity and Access Management or set up a secure cloud solution with the GCP, contact the experts at Coolhead Tech today.