SaaS forces Manchester to 'think differently' with security

Manchester City Council has reportedly spent over £400,000 on integrating a hosted identity and access management (IAM) service to ensure security after it increased the use of cloud-based software that required their IT department to "think differently" about its set up.

The council revealed that it introduced the Google Premier Partner Cloud Technology Solution to support IAM technology, which it states will be delivered via the popular software-as-a-service model (SaaS). In fact, the local cloud firm has agreed a three-year contract with the council worth a total of around £442,000, with an option to extend the contract for a further two years should it prove successful.

According to IT experts at the council, its associated buildings previously relied on a more "traditional" set up to support IAM technology, which including the careful placement of physical devices designed to manage access to the services, while remote access was delivered via two-factor authentication physical tokens that were delivered by manufacturer RSA.

Commenting on the changes, a spokesperson for Manchester City Council stated that the new SaaS system is expected to allow the organisation to run more efficiently, and as such provide a better service to those living in and around the city.

"As more ICT services based on the SaaS model are being adopted and deployed within the council, it has become necessary to think differently about how," the spokesperson said. "IAM can be more efficiently deployed and managed in a secure, scalable, and easily deployable way, providing a seamless experience for our users."

(Image: By Michael Ashton - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,)