The What, Why, and How of Deprovisioning

<h3><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>What’s deprovisioning?</span></h3>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Simply put, deprovisioning is the opposite of provisioning. While provisioning is carried out when an employee joins the organization, deprovisioning needs to be carried out when an employee exits. </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Deprovisioning involves revoking the user’s access to the organization’s data, applications and devices. It is the final stage of the corporate user lifecycle that begins with on-boarding and provisioning.</span>
<h3><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Why is it important?</span></h3>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Provisioning plays an important role in an organization’s productivity by getting new users the access they require to perform their role in the company. </span>

<b>Deprovisioning, on the other hand, plays a critical role in security and compliance.</b><span style=”font-weight: 400;”> When an employee moves on, it is vital that they no longer have access to the organization’s data or applications, because this would leave the door open to misuse. </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The consequences can range from data theft to malware insertion, leaks of confidential information to compliance violations. Each of these can have a major negative impact on the company’s finances as well as reputation.</span>
<h3><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>How does it work?</span></h3>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Most organizations make use of multiple applications in their operations. Manually remembering to revoke access from a user when they exit the company can therefore be tedious, time consuming, and can easily result in human error as well.</span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>A key requirement for an efficient and effective provisioning and deprovisioning process, therefore, is to bring control over access to all of the organization’s applications and data onto a single platform. This is typically achieved through the use of a Single Sign-On (SSO) solution – which is typically one of the major components of an Identity and Access Management solution.</span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>With an SSO in place, the company’s admins can exercise control over user access from a single place, making the process fast, accurate and convenient. By removing the user’s account in one centralized dashboard, their access to all applications and data is then automatically revoked.</span>

<i><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Akku is an enterprise identity and access management solution by CloudNow that helps companies manage the corporate user lifecycle more efficiently – from provisioning all the way to deprovisioning. Talk to us today to see how Akku could help your business address security and compliance issues arising from sub-optimal deprovisioning processes.</span></i>