Strata Identity on Wednesday launched Maverics Identity Discovery, a free software tool that automates the manual process of auditing and cataloging on-premises identity environments.

In a press release, Strata claims that the tool reduces cloud migration project times from months to hours.

The release of the Maverics cloud migration tool looks to solve a very specific problem for security teams: According to recent Strata research, some 70% of organizations say they have an active cloud migration project planned this year because most on-premises identity systems are nearing end of life and will no longer be supported in 2022.

Eric Leach, chief product officer for Strata, explained that discovery and cataloging of a legacy identity system has been an extremely manual process because there’s no unified view of older environments that span multiple stakeholders, have evolved over years, and contain hidden complexities.

As a result, Leach said identity administrators must identify each app, and then interview and gain buy-in from each application owner — a process that often takes many months to complete at high-dollar and opportunity costs.

If every company started their identity program from a greenfield, security teams would find identity a much easier task, said Frank Dickson, program vice president for security and trust at IDC. In reality, a company’s identity platforms are often the summation of past sins, he said.

“Mergers, acquisitions, digital transformation and sometimes identity apathy can create [an] opaque sea of directories and roles such that every identity results in being a snowflake,” Dickson said. “Moving identity management from on-premises to the cloud offers that opportunity to consolidate directories, rationalize roles and correct the sins of the past, but that opportunity may require a Herculean effort to address. Tools and automation are a must or the manual effort will be punishing and, as a result, expensive.”

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