Gartner’s definition of CIEM is
“Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) offerings are specialized identity-centric SaaS solutions focused on managing cloud access risk via administration-time controls for the governance of entitlements in hybrid and multicloud IaaS. They typically use analytics, machine learning (ML) and other methods to detect anomalies in account entitlements, like accumulation of privileges, dormant and unnecessary entitlements. CIEM ideally provides remediation and enforcement of least privilege approaches.”
Cloud infrastructure entitlement management is the process of managing which users or devices are authorized to access and use cloud resources. This includes the ability to provision and manage resources, as well as the ability to monitor and audit usage.
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Cloud infrastructure entitlement management is essential for organizations that want to ensure that their cloud resources are used securely and efficiently. By managing user access and permissions, organizations can control who can access which resources, and prevent unauthorized access.
Organizations can also use entitlement management to track and audit resource usage. This can help identify any unauthorized or excessive usage, and help organizations to optimize their cloud resources.
There are a number of different tools and technologies that can be used for cloud infrastructure entitlement management. These include identity and access management (IAM) tools, role-based access control (RBAC), and cloud management platforms (CMPs).
A CIEM platform must have a lot of features, for example an easy-to-use module for managing account privileges and for enforcing company policies. An entitlement management module lets administrators control permissions for each user. The audit feature helps companies find and remove any dormant or orphaned accounts that are a security risk. Auditing also helps cloud administrators track the current entitlement level for each account.
Additionally, many leading CIEM platforms work well with top cloud providers, like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The best platforms also support multi-cloud and hybrid cloud setups. When choosing a CIEM platform, remember that easy integration is important for a successful implementation.
IAM tools provide organizations with a way to manage user identities and permissions. IAM tools can be used to create and manage user accounts, and to assign roles and permissions to users. IAM tools can also be used to authenticate users, and to log user activity.
RBAC is a method of granting access to resources based on roles rather than individual users. With RBAC, administrators can create roles with specific permissions, and then assign those roles to users or groups. This allows organizations to granularly control which resources users can access, and what they can do with those resources.
CMPs are used to manage and provision cloud resources. CMPs can be used to create and manage resources, assign users and roles, and track and audit resource usage. CMPs can also be used to help organizations optimize their cloud resources by providing insights into resource usage and trends.
