At Web Active Directory, our web-based Identity and Access Management platform, PeoplePlatform, runs on premise or in the cloud.  For many of our customers, it’s important that the solution can install and function on premise.  This is true across the board but also especially in government, healthcare, and education.

On Premise for Directory Data Can Make More Sense

Many web applications benefit from running in the cloud.  Social media applications are good examples, as large numbers of users are connected in those cases.  Your Identity and Access Management Platform may not be one of those that benefits from being on the internet.  Your organization’s user data, including their access levels, attributes, and passwords are all data that’s sacred to an organization.  It’s critical, and a data-breach of this kind of data can be nothing short of disastrous.

No data is beyond being compromised, even behind your firewall.  It’s much easier to secure this important data when it’s behind that all-important barrier, however.  Keeping web access behind your firewall when possible is one large way to discourage or prevent data breaches.   Stealing data behind a firewall is a much different proposition than outside of it.  Many attacks now are occurring from overseas making behind the firewall criminality much less common.

Unfortunately, as of the time of this writing, we’re seeing a lot of data-breaches and data compromised with web applications.  This is occurring with popular e-commerce companies and regrettably with cloud-based Identity and Access Management Systems.

On Premise Doesn’t Mean The Cloud is Ignored

Just because your Identity and Access Management platform is on premise doesn’t mean you have to ignore the cloud or single sign-in.  Web Active Directory’s PeoplePlatform can be used as an Identity and Access Management System that provisions users and enable SSO in over 2,500 3rd party applications.  This doesn’t mean that the user’s primary authentication information and data internal to your on premise directory needs to be in the cloud.  This information doesn’t need to travel outside of your firewall.

In short, you can keep your data on premise, secure behind your firewall, with ports closed with the outside world unable to have a chance at seeing and still work with the cloud.  Installing on premise can still make a lot of sense in today’s uncertain security climate.