For most small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), cybersecurity is more than just knowing what to do. The challenge comes when people, devices, and tools change. Most small teams and managed service providers (MSPs) will only take the time to define access policies once, enroll laptops once, and check off compliance needs once. On paper, everything looks fine.
The problem with traditional security setups like this is that they quietly drift out of alignment, out of compliance, and out of a generally safe security posture. Most teams manage identity and devices in separate systems, by different teams, or through inconsistent workflows. Sometimes, teams have zero visibility into how an external MSP has set up identity and device management. Over time, this misalignment creates small gaps that add up—gaps that rarely trigger alarms but can create serious risk if ignored.
To see how Zip can help you implement an identity + device security model, book a demo.
It’s easy to assume that passing security audits or having formal policies in place means your organization is secure.
Consider some common scenarios:
Regular access reviews and automated user provisioning can prevent privilege creep by automatically auditing permissions periodically, so that only necessary access remains.
None of these are dramatic breaches or headline-making failures. They’re ordinary operational gaps, and because they’re invisible day-to-day, they quietly undermine how effective your security is.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the backbone of modern cybersecurity for small and mid-sized businesses. At its core, IAM is a set of processes and technologies that help organizations manage digital identities, control user access, and enforce strict access controls to sensitive data, systems, and applications. By centralizing how user identities are created, managed, and retired, IAM solutions ensure that only the right people can gain access to what they need, when they need it.
For SMBs, effective access management is about more than just passwords. It’s about making sure that user credentials, access privileges, and access permissions are always up to date, even as teams grow, roles change, and new tools are adopted. With an IAM solution in place, organizations can control user access across multiple applications, manage user identities from a single dashboard, and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Good IAM solutions make it easier for organizations to manage identities and control user access at granular levels. Even better IAM solutions help organizations manage user identities and access privileges across various devices and environments by connecting specific devices to identities using the identity and access management + device management model.
To address these gaps, SMBs are adopting a simpler approach: the Identity + Device model.
This model treats access as a relationship between three things:
Mobile device management and mobile security are essential for protecting organizational data on mobile devices and personal devices, ensuring secure access and compliance.
Rather than asking, “Does this user have access?” the question becomes:
“Does this person, on this device, right now, still meet our security requirements?” or, for example, "Is Todd's MacBook Pro requiring 2FA?"
By evaluating identity and device signals together in this way, organizations ensure that access is accurate in real time. IAM helps define device-based access policies and access control, especially for secure access from personal and own devices.
The Identity + Device approach directly solves the everyday gaps SMBs face:
By leveraging IAM technologies and IAM tools, organizations can streamline and automate access management, enabling granular control over user roles and access privileges. This approach not only simplifies identity access but also enhances security and operational efficiency across devices and environments.
Essentially, this model helps make it simpler to see who has access to what, when. That makes a lot of security ops work much easier. An identity + device model can help with:
Old accounts and orphaned permissions disappear automatically. Automated user provisioning in IAM solutions helps eliminate account sprawl by standardizing onboarding and offboarding processes. Only active users retain access, preventing excess privileges from accumulating over time. Automating these workflows reduces errors and ensures timely removal of access, while IAM solutions can automate and standardize many tasks related to identity, authentication, and authorization management.
Devices are continuously verified for enrollment, health, and compliance, ensuring that all enrolled devices are visible and under control through mobile device management solutions. Only properly managed devices are trusted, minimizing risk from outdated hardware.
When an employee leaves, both their identity and device access are removed together. Security no longer depends on memory, emails, or manual checklists.
When your overall security actually reflects reality, auditors, insurance providers, and internal teams see a current snapshot of access and device management.
Identity governance tools within IAM provide audit trails, activity monitoring, and access reports, supporting compliance by ensuring secure and compliant handling of user identities across cloud environments.
SMBs often don’t have large IT departments or dedicated security teams. Sometimes, adding more tools, rules, or procedures can actually increase risk by creating more moving parts to manage.
The Identity + Device model is different. It consolidates workflows and reduces friction:
Modern IAM solutions, especially those deployed in the cloud, offer scalability, flexibility, and lower maintenance costs, making them ideal for small teams that need to adapt quickly to changing compliance protocols and security threats. IAM solutions also improve employee productivity by providing fast access to necessary resources and reduce IT costs by automating and standardizing identity management tasks.
This approach doesn’t require every employee to become a security expert. Instead, it reflects the reality of how work happens while keeping controls synchronized.
Map users and devices: Understand who has access to what and on which devices.
Automate alignment: Implement tools or workflows that automatically remove access when a person leaves or a device is decommissioned.
Monitor continuously: Track real-time signals for both identity and device health to prevent drift. Continuous monitoring using SIEM tools is necessary for tracking user activity and detecting anomalies in real-time.
Integrate with compliance: Ensure audit logs and reports reflect actual, current access rather than outdated snapshots.
Implementing user authentication best practices is essential for strong identity access management. This includes using multi-factor authentication (MFA), which requires users to provide a combination of authentication factors to verify their identities. Many enterprises use two-factor authentication (2FA) as a basic form of MFA. Single sign-on (SSO) allows an authorized user to securely log in to multiple applications using only one set of credentials, streamlining user authentication and reducing credential-related risks. Tracking password resets is also a key metric for evaluating the effectiveness of your IAM system.
Even small, incremental improvements can dramatically reduce everyday gaps that often go unnoticed.
With Zip, security shifts from reactive firefighting to steady, predictable coverage. The right people, on the right devices, have the right access at the right time—and when that context changes, security updates with it. That alignment is what makes security manageable for small teams.
Rather than forcing teams to learn a new framework or chase checklists, Zip operationalizes security in the background. It connects people to the devices they use and the access they need, automatically configuring controls, enforcing least-privilege access, and closing gaps as they appear. This approach leverages role-based access control and privileged access management to grant appropriate access, reducing security risks and preventing data breaches.
Zip also supports the compliance and trust requirements growing businesses face, from customer security reviews to regulatory expectations such as health insurance portability and data protection mandates. By enforcing modern access management IAM controls, including multi-factor authentication and continuous monitoring of user behavior, Zip helps companies protect access to sensitive information and meet security and compliance standards without building a full identity management system or security program from scratch. It’s a Zero Trust–aligned approach, made practical for SMBs who need security to work—not slow them down.
See how Zip can make your IT workload easier. Book a demo today.
