AWS IAM Identity Center vs. JumpCloud

IAM plays a pivotal role in our organization, addressing the unique needs of our diverse workforce, which includes full-time employees, part-timers, contractors, and client engineers who access our workloads. This multifaceted solution offers us unparalleled control over access, ensuring that each individual has precisely the permissions they need and nothing more. IAM's robust security features guarantee the protection of our valuable resources and sensitive data. As our organization expands, IAM effortlessly scales with us, adapting to changing requirements, and helping us maintain our commitment to top-tier security and efficient access management.

Incentivized

JumpCloud is least suited in situations where you have few devices, but lots of users. JumpCloud heavily focuses on the "One-User-One-Device" type of use, and does lack some of the features things like Active Directory is better suited for when having multiple users accessing one machine. Their Powershell APIs are fantastic and getting only more powerful. Lots of features are hidden behind these APIs, so admins not as familiar with Powershell would have more issues leveraging these tools. BYOD deployments are amazing, especially for macOS devices that are using Apple Business Manager and can leverage Zero Touch deployments. It is especially good at handling mixed systems, whereas other options, such as Jamf, are really suiting only for macOS, or Intune is more suited for Windows; JumpCloud managed to handle both systems well.

• User management and Access control.
• Account Security hardening using Multi-factor authentication.
• Identity Federation using single sign on.

Incentivized

• User Management - The ability to control our users and set password/polices is made easy in the JC console
• Device Management - Using JC each user is assigned to their own device with only the rights to do their job - When elevated rights are required, this is done simply via the JC console for the period of time required
• SSO - Using JC's SAML SSO integrations we are building out our SSO offering and this is making for a much simpler daily user experience

Incentivized

• Make it easier for users to assume roles securely, especially in cross-account settings. This might involve simplifying the process of switching roles in the management console or creating a command for AWS CLI that supports smoother role assumption.
• Policy testing tools will be invaluable for administrators when they are creating policies. If this tool is able to assess the impact of enforcing a policy it will help greatly in preventing policy misconfigurations that lead to unintended consequences.
• Better user interface, AWS should simplify the IAM interface to encourage new users.

Incentivized

• SSO via OpenID - Opening up their SSO from just SAML to including OpenID (OAuth) would allow us to make more use of the service and to also incorporate it into some internal testing suites
• Time Limited User Elevation - The ability to time limit a users elevation of privileges would be a great addition
• Extending device management to include LPA - Least Privilege Access is becoming a bigger ask from our external auditors - Being able to do this via JC would be amazing

Incentivized

It gets easier with time, initially, it can be overwhelming for a fresher. Once you're used to working with roles and policies and know when and where it is required eventually it becomes easy

Incentivized

It's simple. I like how JumpCloud keeps things simple. Similar to Apple's ecosystem, they give you what you want with some extra features and bells and whistles but it doesn't take a large instruction manual to use it. They have the support system and KB articles to back up their product and learn about a feature and how to implement it

Incentivized

I have rarely contacted support. When I have, the responses were within expected time frames, and easy to access. Community support is incredible, both from the JumpCloud representatives, and the user base community at large. The support pages on the website also are typically very well written and strike a nice balance between having the technical information needed, and also being easy to understand for the small business types that might not have as much of a technical background as an IT Admin.

Being responsible for choosing the product after a POC and pilot we found the process to be simple and effective

Incentivized

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) excels over Google Cloud IAM with its granular control, extensive service integration, and robust security features. AWS IAM provides fine-tuned access policies, versatile role delegation, and a wide array of services. Its adaptability and extensive toolset make it the preferred choice for businesses of all sizes.

Incentivized

Incentivized

Some features would make more sense for us to be bundled by machine, instead of the user. We have fewer machines, and multiple users log into one machine, so doing something like paying per user for services like Patch Management are difficult to warrant the cost. I also feel a more complete package that includes common addon features; Patch Management and Password Manager, would be an improvement. It would also be nice if we could change packages, addons, and other billing services via self-service instead of reaching out to our account manager.

services and professional team and support teams are good

Incentivized

• AWS IAM Identity Center has significantly bolstered our security posture by ensuring that only authorized personnel access our resources. This enhanced security has protected us from potential data breaches or unauthorized use of resources, mitigating risks and potential costs associated with security incidents.
• While IAM brings long-term cost savings, there might be initial implementation and training costs. It's important to factor these costs into the ROI equation.
• If your organization isn't used to such fine-grained access control, there might be resistance to adopting IAM. Overcoming this resistance might require additional training costs.

Incentivized

• Very easily add, or disable employee logins
• Reduce "password fatigue" by being able to reduce password expiration requirements, and having single sign on
• Higher security and visibility of security issues
• Reduced onboarding time from days to minutes
• Enabled easy reassignment of user accounts to another user via groups when employees leave
• Quick securing of terminated users, or otherwise compromised accounts
• Reduced user disablement time from previous manual methods requiring days, to literal minutes