The benefits of password management as a service

Weak and reused passwords introduce security vulnerabilities that can expose an organization to a greater risk of a cyberattack or data breach. To avoid such incidents, it’s important for all businesses to implement a secure password management solution.

Password management can be offered as a service to businesses that want to centralize password security and streamline user provisioning but may not have the capacity, expertise, or resources to do so internally. If you're a Managed Service Provider (MSP) or are considering your options as a customer, read on to learn the benefits of password management as a service.

A business password manager is a software solution that helps businesses store, manage, and share passwords securely. Password managers enable employees to easily keep track of dozens of passwords to online subscriptions while protecting sensitive business information. 

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Managed service providers (MSPs) are always looking for ways to add value to their clients. By leveraging a trusted third-party password manager (such as Bitwarden), MSPs can bring powerful security practices to their current and future customers across multiple platforms and an unlimited number of devices. 

The benefits of password management as a service include the following:

Robust password security policies

For an MSP, leveraging a solution that supports robust password security policies is critical to ensuring client passwords and other sensitive data remain secure. Bitwarden, for example, enables its customers to establish a first line of defense against data breaches by enforcing strong password policies. In addition to offering open source transparency, Bitwarden protects client data with end-to-end AES-256 bit encryption, salted hashing, and PBKDF2 SHA-256.

Secure password sharing 

One of the top benefits of password management as a service is secure password sharing. Most businesses today have hundreds of logins that need to be securely stored with a simple solution for sharing across teams and departments. Traditional methods of sharing passwords, such as reusing the same password for all shared accounts or passing around logins in a spreadsheet, expose the company to an increased risk of a breach and quickly become a headache to manage.

By leveraging an enterprise-grade open source solution for your password management service, you can gain peace of mind knowing the codebase is regularly inspected for vulnerabilities and secured with end-to-end encryption.

Visibility to user access and sharing activity

Many robust business password managers support an essential feature known as event logs for visibility to user access and sharing activity throughout the organization. This level of insight is invaluable for managed service providers to help clients keep track of usage activity and enforce security best practices. 

Automated user provisioning and de-provisioning

Provisioning new employees and de-provisioning accounts is a common pain point for businesses today because it takes a considerable amount of time and resources to add or remove employees from all necessary accounts. With a password management solution, this process can be done automatically from a centralized directory or identity management service.

Bitwarden, for instance, makes this possible by supporting the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM). Here's how SCIM works. Instead of manually creating an end-user account for every subscription when employees join the company, an IT administrator can simply add the new user to their identity provider or directory, which will use SCIM to automatically create the accounts across all services and tools for them. This system also supports automated de-provisioning when a user moves to another department or leaves the company.

Enhancing online employee productivity 

A password management system is one of the most efficient ways to boost employee productivity online. By using a password manager with a full-featured sharing model, businesses can empower employees with a safe way to store and share account logins with access to their private data on any browser or device. This ensures employees never have to default to unsafe password storage or sharing methods that may introduce new security risks to the business.

If you're a managed service provider, you know that data security and online efficiency are of the utmost importance to your clients. With a transparent, open source approach to password management, service providers can confidently offer Bitwarden to their clients knowing the information is secured with end-to-end encryption, automated user provisioning, and robust event logs.

Bitwarden has a Partner Program designed to help MSPs and resellers enhance their security offerings and achieve their business goals. For more information about the Bitwarden Partner Program for service providers, visit bitwarden.com/msp today.