Some choices matter more than others in effective cybersecurity. The choice you make regarding identity and access management (IAM) software is vitally important. If you choose a system that is a poor fit for your company’s budget, you are going to be stuck working around system limitations for years.
Are Avatier and SailPoint On Your IAM Software Shortlist?
Avatier and SailPoint are two major providers of IAM software. While these providers aim to solve similar problems for customers, there are significant differences to note. Before you decide to invest time attending software demos, use this Avatier vs. SailPoint comparison to determine which one is worth your limited time and attention.
Avatier vs. SailPoint: What IAM Features Do They Offer?
Within cybersecurity, IAM software is focused on authentication and access. From a user’s perspective, this means using a robust single sign-on (SSO) password for streamlined and secure digital access across all of your company’s devices. However, the tech oversight of IAM involves multiple activities. At the end of a user lifecycle, you need to properly offboard departing employees to revoke access. At the start of the user lifecycle, managers need a simple way to provide access by using user groups. At all times, you need strong password management to avoid phishing and as a way to keep privileged accounts secure from misuse.
The ability to manage a large group of users with IAM software matters for staff productivity. You don’t want your cybersecurity staff to create individual user accounts for each new hire. With Avatier, you can use Group Requestor to manage groups of users. Specifically, you can use rules to prevent mistakes and fraud. For instance, if an employee in the sales department incorrectly requests the same access permissions as a finance employee, the system can use rules to detect that discrepancy.
SailPoint also offers group user administration. Users can receive access permissions based on job role. However, the degree of automation provided by SailPoint is limited. Fortunately, the product integrates with ServiceNow, a popular tool to manage and respond to IT tickets centrally.
When it comes to providing advanced security, support for multi-factor authentication (MFA) is no longer optional. Avatier gives users several ways to authenticate users beyond entering a simple password. You require users to enter a one-time passcode sent to their smartphones. Further, there are three biometric authentication options (e.g., voice and fingerprint). You can also use specialized hardware devices for authentication like a Yubikey.
SailPoint’s approach to multi-factor authentication is a bit different. In terms of MFA vendors, SailPoint supports Duo, RSA and Microsoft. That is a good start, especially if your company already uses one of those options. However, biometric authentication support appears to be lacking. If you have biometrics on your SSO vendor selection process, Avatier may be a better choice.
Single sign-on support matters because it gives employees a seamless experience at work. Avatier’s single sign-on software gives you a terms-of-use tracking capability, which means you can tell if employees agree to terms. That’s not all. You can also use Avatier SSO to track cloud app usage to determine which applications you really need.
According to Capterra, SailPoint does not provide a single sign-on capability. That poses a challenge when you are developing your identity and access management program. To bridge that gap, you would need to buy products from multiple vendors to develop a full solution.
Today’s business users want self-serve capabilities rather than waiting on hold with IT for a solution. Avatier’s approach to self-serve IAM relies on Apollo, an IT security chatbot. It can respond to password change requests and other changes 24/7 based on your password policy.
Finally, consider how easy it will be to integrate the IAM software with the rest of your infrastructure. When an IAM software service integrates with your existing software suite, it is much easier to get up to speed. Avatier’s integrations include lActive Identity, Agilysys, Bally, Blackboard, Creasoft, Dell, Google and others. If you use Google cloud products like G Suite, integrating with Avatier is easy.
With SailPoint, there are different options for software integration. In terms of MFA vendors, the company currently offers three options: Duo, RSA and Microsoft. Besides, the company also provides integration with Office 365, ServiceNow and Salesforce so your employees can use those tools to manage identity and access needs.
Comparing Avatier vs. SailPoint: Pricing and Costs
No evaluation of business software would be complete without reviewing pricing. There are several elements to the pricing and cost story. Let’s start with the software cost since that is the most specific component.
With Avatier, pricing is flexible and based on your needs. Avatier pricing varies depending on the number of products and users you enroll. The unit pricing ranges from $1.50 per month per user to $5.00 per user per month. Discounts are also available for educational institutions in some cases.
By contrast, SailPoint pricing is more complicated. According to Capterra, “Pricing starts at $75,000 and scales based on volume.” Due to this pricing structure, it is more difficult to imagine a small proof-of-concept project.
Avatier vs. SailPoint: Your Next Steps To Choose the Right Product
You’ve learned about some of the capabilities of these two IAM products. You may not be sure which one is a good fit for your specific needs yet. To simplify the buying process, consider the following questions:
Which product is a better fit for my company’s current technology infrastructure?
You should not have to spend time and resources changing your core technology to accommodate a new IAM solution.
Which product helps you to increase the productivity of your IT security staff?
Your IT security professionals are probably overworked right now. By choosing a product that emphasizes automation and self-serve options, you will be able to save time on IT security administration.
Which pricing model best suits your financial situation?
You only have so much budget planned for IAM software this year. Therefore, you need to choose a solution that aligns easily with your business case.
Learn more about how Avatier’s IAM tools can help your business.
