Intro to IAM - Resources
Welcome to Equinix! This discussion post is the first in a short series that I think might help you hit the ground running as you begin your digital transformation journey. Before we get too much further, let’s establish some IAM terminology that we’ll be using a lot in the sections to follow. If you'd prefer to watch along, here's a spotlight video on IAM and here's a short primer on Resources, Projects, and Organizations Benefits and Features of IAM Our robust IAM framework simplifies access for employees and customers through single credentials and secure authentication, and provides several other benefits: Greater security - Streamlined digital identities reduce risk and exposure to threats like data breaches and phishing. Centralized control -Role-based access control (RBAC) allows for centralized management of authentication and access rules. Regulatory compliance - Enhanced visibility and control help meet regulatory requirements. Customer Resource Hierarchy (CRH) – View and manage the structure of organizations, projects and resources. Access Management (AM) – Add users and grant access to the user in a given resource. Create custom roles that suit your internal organization setup. Identity Management – Manage your access and security settings. Link your accounts and switch between them without having to re-login. Resources Resources, (also known as Assets), are the building blocks that reflect your organization. These include different types of organizations, projects, connections, and virtual devices. Customers can create organizations, projects, and manage billing account assignment to build a resource hierarchy that feels familiar and matches the setup and operations of their organization. Every node in the customer resource hierarchy is a resource which can be accessed and controlled using IAM. A digital resource such as a Fabric port or Virtual connection would be a leaf node in the resource hierarchy and would also be referred to as an asset. Organizations Organizations allow you to model your resource hierarchy so that it matches your actual organizational setup. Organizations can also serve as parent nodes for other organizations or for projects. Projects Projects enable the convenient assignment and management of assets required for your end-customer or internal project's needs. In this example, the reseller has created separate organizations and projects for their end-customers. Each project entity has been assigned a set of product specific assets required to carry out a given end-customer commitment. Default Projects A default project is created by the system whenever a new first level organization is created. Default projects belong under the first level organization and are immutable, which means this organization can’t be deleted, renamed, or moved anywhere in the resource hierarchy. Projects A project is an entity within the customers resource hierarchy, A project is used to group multiple digital assets so that they can manage access rights to users spanning multiple projects. Projects are the second to last node in the resource hierarchy and are also parent of all digital assets. In the example shown above, the Resources/Assets (shown in yellow) are nested inside the Projects (shown in orange), which then fall under two Organizations (shown in red).User Access User Access Users assigned to an organization automatically inherit access to organizations and projects nested under the given organization node. This applies to existing organizations and projects as well as future organizations and projects created under this organization. Changes in role assignments on a specific hierarchy level are also reflected in the underlying organizations and projects. In the example Organization above, Joe has been assigned to the "Moonshot International" organization. Through inheritance, he can access all organizations and projects nested under the Moonshot International organization. Joe has also been explicitly assigned to the Nucleus project. Here are some things to consider when an organization or project is moved under a new parent organization: Users explicitly assigned to the organization or project will still be able to access it, and organizations and projects nested under it, after it's moved to a new target organization. Users that inherited access to it from the current parent organization, will no longer be able to access the organization or project. Users that have access to the new parent organization, by being explicitly assigned to it or through inheritance, will gain access to the organization or project being moved. Hopefully this discussion post and the video primers provided helped paint a picture of how customers are structuring their Organizations using IAM and got familiar with some of the "building blocks" in the Equinix IAM Portal. Next time we'll take a look at users and roles! Reference Documentation: Equinix Product Documentation Equinix Fabric Equinix Network Edge About Identity and Access Management (equinix.com)
Huge Accessibility Improvement to Our Design System 🙌
Hi everyone, it's been a while! The Quix Design System team has worked on making sure that our building blocks are accessible, and we are happy to announce that all our components now have accessibility upgrades. Some things we have been paying special attention to: Keyboard navigation Screen reader compatibility Color contrast & visible focus indicators Programmatically determinable roles & states We used Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 as our standard and referenced WAI Patterns for keyboard interactions. Since not all parts of the customer portal is using the Quix Design System, the improvements will only be noticeable in pages that utilize Quix components. But rest assured! We're working on auditing the portal and addressing accessibility issues. In the meantime, if you find any accessibility bugs or pages that need attention, please reach out to me, make a post in this channel, or leave a comment below. We are a small team and would appreciate any help to guide us to issues that require attention. p.s. If you want to test out the Quix components, visit our Storybook (only available on the Equinix network)How to Open a Support Case in the Equinix Customer Portal
New to Equinix and need support? In this video, we'll show you how to open a Support Case in the Equinix Customer Portal. In under a minute, you'll learn where the Support Icon is located, how to fill out the Support Case form, and where to track your Support Case after it's submitted. Head to the Equinix Customer Portal if you'd like to submit a Support Case: https://customerportal.equinix.com/
Intro to IAM - Users and Roles:
Users and Roles Administrators will need to assign roles to their users to perform tasks across the various Equinix Portals. If you'd prefer to watch along, here's a quick video demonstrating how to assign and remove roles from users in the IAM Portal: Navigate to the lefthand side of the screen to jump between various equinix portals in the menu. around the middle of the page under "Company Management", click on "Identity and Access Management" here we can manage users and roles Users Users represent individuals allowed to log in to Equinix portals. Assign users to organizations and projects and grant them access to select assets based on predefined or custom roles. Roles Roles Roles are sets of permissions that grant the ability for users to do things like order new digital services like Equinix Fabric Ports or Network Edge Devices, Create Virtual Connections, or edit existing services. Use the Equinix Customer Portal to manage user access to product assets that haven't been onboarded to Identity and Access Management. Note: You will see a list of users who have been assigned a role in the selected project/organization. However, you can search for users that have not been assigned any role in the selected context by searching for First Name/Last Name or username of the user. (you can also search for a user in a different organization within the same rootOrg by searching for the exact username of that user.) Hopefully this discussion post and the video primer helped you get a handle on assigning and removing roles from users, and how to think about how administrators might go about creating sets of custom roles. With all of the administrative stuff out of the way, in these next posts we'll take a look at how a new user would place their first digital services order. Reference Documentation: Equinix Product Documentation Equinix Fabric Equinix Network Edge About Identity and Access Management (equinix.com)Smart Hands 2022.6
Smart Hands 2022.6 Equinix Smart Hands 2022.6 is available December 12, 2022. This release includes the following changes to the Smart Hands interface. Order a Support Plan Online For direct users, Smart Hands Support Plans can now be ordered online. When ordering, you can choose Prepaid Smart Hands Hours or a Monthly Smart Hands Support Plan With Rollover. For more details and instructions, see Support Plans. Note: Online ordering of support plans is not yet available for reseller accounts, or for users in Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, Turkey, India, Korea, China, Belgium, Indonesia, South Africa, Chile, or Peru. Enhanced ‘Activity Timeline’ Details The Activity Timeline now provides additional updates about your Smart Hands orders: For scheduled requests – Once the scheduling of the work is accepted by Equinix, the scheduled start date and time are now shown in the timeline. For orders with the video conference option enabled – Once the scheduling of the Zoom meeting has been accepted by Equinix, the meeting date and time are now shown in the timeline. For inbound shipments containing multiple packages – As your packages arrive at the IBX, the timeline is updated to show the number of packages received so far (green=received, red=not received). Once all parts of the shipment have been received, the colored indicator is solid green. Time Zone Indicator on ‘Orders and Tickets History’ On the Orders and Tickets History screen, a new globe icon () in the Estimated Completion column indicates that the estimated completion dates/times are displayed in your preferred time zone (not the IBX local time zone). Note: If you want to change your preferred time zone in ECP, select My Profile (under your username in the top right corner). Select an option from the Time Zone drop-down list and click Submit. New Tooltip for Install/Move/Replace Equipment On the order forms for Install Equipment and Move/Replace Equipment, there’s a new tooltip beside the option for I have an inbound shipment ticket. It explains that if you’ve just finished submitting the Inbound Shipment ticket, it might take up to 30 minutes to be available for selection. New Option on ‘Cable Connectivity Check’ Form On the Cable Connectivity Check form, when selecting an asset, there’s a new option for Proceed with the cable removal if live traffic is detected. If you select it, you acknowledge that Equinix is not responsible for any service outages resulting from the cable removal. Optional ‘Scope of Work’ For Smart Hands order forms that allow you to upload a template or use a Guided Form (such as the order forms for Install Equipment and Install Cables), the Scope of Work details field is now marked as “Optional”. As long as you’ve included all the necessary details in the guided form or the uploaded template, you don't need to include them again in the Scope of Work section. Date Field Clarification for Inbound Shipments For clarification of the Inbound Shipment form, the Date field has been renamed Approximate Arrival Date. Enter the date you expect the shipment to be delivered to the IBX (not the date it was shipped).
