NetIQ delivers a scalable identity management solution, introducing self-service and full identity federation. “Being able to provide business intelligence reports based on the audit data from NetIQ Access Manager so that the CIO can monitor and analyze systems use, has been really valuable” says Mr. Yossi Amiel, the IDM Project Manager, at the Ministry of Education in Israel.
The Ministry of Education in Israel provides services to approximately 2,500 internal users, deployed in seven geographical districts. It also supports approximately 2,000,000 external students and teachers with online services.
Challenge
The Ministry uses over 100 systems to which different user communities require access. All user accounts and authentication systems were managed separately for each system. The lack of system integration resulted in data duplication, and the resource-intensive process to manage user accounts was not scalable. Implementing different password policies for user communities was complex and posed security risks.
User provisioning was a manual process. A student account was generated on a mainframe-based system; it would be entered into an identification system, a hard copy printed, and sent to the relevant school for distribution to the student. The system was cumbersome, expensive, and error-prone.
Dr. Ofer Rimon, CIO, Ministry of Education, explains: “We started looking at a more structured identity management solution when we had one million users. We have now grown to over two million users and anticipate the need to support three million users soon, so scalability was important. We wanted to centralise and automate management of user accounts and permissions across our systems, while maintaining uniform enforcement of information security procedures.
“We were lacking visibility and needed a solution to track and monitor all identity management processes. And, finally, we needed an effective self-service function, where users can update their personal accounts and reset their passwords if required. Our helpdesk was supporting users with these requests.”
The Ministry invests heavily into digitising its educational environment, and with the introduction of digital books, LMS systems, digital learning environments, tablet access, and the provision of internet infrastructures into schools, a structured identity management solution to gain secure and immediate access became even more important.
Solution
Several solutions were reviewed during an RFP process in 2007, in which the organisation looked at options for user/account provisioning, a central user data and permissions repository, authentication and authorisation for internal as well as online environments.
Effective reporting tools for tracking and monitoring purposes, user self-service, automating user permissions based on certain organisation and business rules, and automatically aggregating and correlating identity data from the HR system and other identity stores were also required.
NetIQ Identity Manager and NetIQ Access Manager™ were found to be the most scalable and secure solutions for the Ministry, with wide support for identity federation services and mobile device access, both key factors.
The NetIQ implementation was soon underway with the introduction of expanded system capabilities for the internal network, including process automation, workflow mechanism, and user self-service. In the online environment SSO (single sign-on) was introduced, as well as self-service capabilities.
Ms Devora Abudi, IT security, comments: “NetIQ solutions have given us a uniform role and entity definition and a process for managing and reporting identities. We now automatically manage user accounts and grant privileges based on user roles. Through unified authentication, our users can access different enterprise and cloud-based applications with a single password and we can support different password policies based on the user profile.
“We also use password synchronisation to provision users and groups of users on a cloud-based Active Directory.”
Results
Mr Yossi Amiel, IDM Project Manager, comments: “Being able to provide a service to teachers and students with one username and password to remember has given us more security and ease of use. Student user accounts no longer require any manual input, and the self-service function has reduced the helpdesk costs.”
He has seen the benefits firsthand: “Being able to provide business intelligence reports based on the audit data from NetIQ Access Manager so that the CIO can monitor and analyse systems use, has been really valuable. And I can see the productivity gains of new people in the organisation who have all the appropriate access from the first day in their job.
“Users have a single password to access enterprise, third party and cloud-based services. Our IT staff found the NetIQ solutions easy to implement and manage and it is so much easier to monitor and enforce information security policies.”
Ms Noami Busin, CTO, Ministry of Education, concludes: “NetIQ meets our organisation’s current and future requirements. We have found the solutions very reliable. We are set for future growth and are very confident that the system will grow with us.”
This article was first published in OH Magazine Issue 34, 2016/3, p18-19.