Three Ways Identity Governance Secures the Oil and Gas Industry
According to the federal Energy Information Administration, oil production has been rising steadily since 2009 with the U.S. becoming the world’s leading producer of natural gas. EIA’s preliminary data for 2019 indicates that total U.S. petroleum production averaged about 19.33 million barrels per day (mmb/d). Natural gas is used in a multitude of productions from vehicle fuel to pharmaceuticals. This industry in the U.S alone supports over 10 million jobs.
This rapid growth, along with frequent mergers and acquisitions has created an explosion of applications and resources, leading to a complex infrastructure that is challenging to manage. The industry’s digital transformation shift compounds the seemingly endless complexity.
To better understand challenges the technology leadership in this $86 trillion dollar industry faces, Gartner Research recently released the 2019 CIO Agenda: Oil and Gas Industry Insights survey. According to the survey, 89% of respondents have digital transformation initiatives underway.
These respondents also indicated that their top priorities were;
- Revenue & Business Growth
- Operational Excellence
- Digital
Game changers included;
- Data Analytics
- Internet of Things
- Artificial Intelligence & Machine learning
These findings reinforce that IT processes have become insufficient and inconvenient. Manual processes are hampering forward movement and further burdening resource-strapped IT teams, leaving companies vulnerable. With IT infrastructure straddling multi-cloud and on-premises environments, along with legacy and SaaS applications, an organization’s infrastructure is now even more convoluted.
Every company values the need for safety and compliance, yet, based on the Gartner survey, many in the Oil and Gas industry recognize that their security and governance practices are falling short. Improving operational efficiency, minimizing risk, and transforming workflows are initiatives that must happen to thrive in the oil and gas industry.
SailPoint enables you to do just that by:
Compliance
For CIO’s and their teams, there are specific compliance implications with the need to find ways to see exactly where data is, lock it down, and govern who has access to it, and see who IS accessing it. Consolidate audit and compliance reporting in one place, so you can address requirements continuously and provide a paper trail to prove compliance Complete visibility and governance into their environments allow CIO’s to overcome these challenges.
Security
Governance over all users allows companies to consolidate resources for auditing and compliance. Whether users are within the organization as a bot, or even non-employee contingent or 3rd party workers, their identities are managed, without the need to store those identities in an HR system. Sensitive data is accessed by the right people. Merger and Acquisition activity is easily managed. Active Directory gets cleaned up and integration capabilities quickly provide user access.
Efficiency
With the right identity solution, companies experience faster onboarding of contractors and employees saving valuable cycle time. Rapid deployment and deprovisioning secure infrastructure faster. With the potential for 100,000+ applications rapid scaling is necessary.
SailPoint minimizes the burden on IT teams by eliminating manual, repetitive processes that take them away from more strategic, business-focused initiatives.
Compliance regulations, merger and acquisitions, a changing workforce, and the acceleration to a digital environment will continue to put pressure on the Oil and Gas industry. Governing all identities within the organization should be the entire industries’ priority during digital transformation.
Source: Gartner 2019 CIO Agenda: Oil and Gas Industry Insights. Simon Cushing, Rick McAvey. October 15, 2018.
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