Fundamentally, Identity & Access Management (IAM) is the process of managing who has access to what information and resources over time and can include other aspects of managing identities within an organization as well.
IAM processes are used to initiate, capture, record and manage the user identities and related access permissions to the organization’s information that is important.
Users that need to have identities and access managed extend beyond those that are directly inside the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) members. They can include affiliates, other universities, partners and others that are not directly tied to the organization.
Information that should be protected in this environment with IAM processes include student, faculty, staff and affiliate information, financial and audit records, sensitive technical information, research, intellectual property that has value and any information that partnered institutions entrust on infrastructure that TAMUS controls or is responsible for.
Vision/Strategy
The overall strategy is to provide a means for each of the members to maintain local control and administrative authority over their users and resources, but also to participate and share across members. This is in keeping with the overall strategy to allow Centers of Excellence so that members can provide services across members.
Another goal is to be in alignment with Incommon’s Federated Identity Management model, which has a number of benefits for members.