AWS Directory Service vs IBM Security Verify Access comparison

AWS Directory Service vs. IBM Security Verify Access

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

AWS Directory Service

Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

16th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM Security Verify Access

Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

17th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (15th), Identity Management (IM) (25th), Access Management (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of AWS Directory Service is 1.5%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Security Verify Access is 1.9%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

Featured Reviews

MassimilianoCollavo

Computer Area Instructor of the Municipality of Asolo at Comune di asolo

Integrates well with other tools, particularly through single sign-on

I've been working with AWS Directory Service as part of a broader solution for moving our infrastructure to a hybrid cloud model. Initially, the goal was to replicate our on-premises server to the cloud and then eventually shut down the on-premises server entirely. My work with AWS Directory Service is focused on migrating to the cloud and finding a suitable document management system that allows for online editing, document sharing, and workflow management. I rate it an eight out of ten.

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Jared Ochieng

Information Technology Security Specialist at infoark

Offers multiple authentication methods like tokens and one-time passwords

The authentication process with IBM Security Verify Access is good and is considered one of the best identity and access management solutions. It helps with multi-factor authentication. It offers multiple authentication methods like tokens and one-time passwords, enhancing security. It also includes features like password vaults and single sign-on, streamlining the access process for remote and local users across different solutions. The tool provides a password vault, single sign-on, and multifactor authentication. It offers various authentication methods like fingerprint integration, one-time passwords, or tokens sent via email or SMS. This ensures secure access to your accounts by providing multiple authentication options. The policy control feature allows you to set authentication measures and policies for your organization's identity governance. This feature helps create standardized policies and organize them into groups based on departments or specific needs. It simplifies access management for both administrators and users. IBM Security Verify Access can be integrated with almost any solution using APIs. The time required for integration depends on whether the solution is out of the box or custom. Out-of-the-box solutions can be integrated quickly, typically within a few days or hours, while custom solutions may require additional steps and take longer to integrate.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The support is very good. I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten."

"AWS Directory Service is secure."

"AWS has eliminated the downtime we waste when our on-premises resources go down."

"Two-step authentication is very useful and important."

"I would rate AWS Directory Service nine out of ten."

"I like the manageability. Activate Connect makes it easier to assign information and to manage the resources in the network."

"The most valuable feature of AWS Directory Service is cost-cutting features."

"The most valuable feature is ease of use."

More AWS Directory Service pros

"The most valuable feature of IBM Security Access Manager, at least for my company, is multi-factor authentication. That's the only feature my company is using. The solution works well and has no glitches. IBM Security Access Manager is a very good solution, so my company is still using it."

"Its stability and UI are most valuable."

"From the integration point of view, it supports SAML, OIDC, and OAuth. For legacy applications that don't have support for SAML and other new protocols, it provides single sign-on access to end-users. From the integration compatibility point of view, it is highly capable."

"The tool provides a password vault, single sign-on, and multifactor authentication. It offers various authentication methods like fingerprint integration, one-time passwords, or tokens sent via email or SMS. This ensures secure access to your accounts by providing multiple authentication options."

"It's a good solution for identification and access management."

"The solution has powerful authentification and authorization. It offers a good way to increase security."

"I have found this solution to be really practical and when a user wants to log in, it is effortless and runs smooth."

Cons

"Currently, there is no option to integrate our on-premises Cisco AWS Directory Service, requiring some manual configuration. If AWS Active Directory Service provided additional domain controller functionalities, like other on-premises Active Directory, it would be very helpful."

"To get CloudWatch to monitor your memory and storage, you have to do some configuration within your server, which sometimes results in errors."

"Some of the security protocols are difficult to understand."

"I would like to grant partial access to a table contained in a database without having to provide full access to the whole database."

"Can be improved by including on-premises access for services through Identity Access Management."

"We had a problem with the schema uploading and setting up the directory when we are migrating our users from on-premises to cloud infrastructure."

"The group policy can be improved."

"Our only complaint is that you cannot integrate your Exchange server. Or, if you are planning to install an Exchange server on your Amazon EC2 instance, then you need to configure Active Directory on EC2 instance. We would like for this limitation to be lifted."

More AWS Directory Service cons

"What we'd like improved in IBM Security Access Manager is its onboarding process as it's complex, particularly when onboarding new applications. We need to be very, very careful during the onboarding. We have no issues with IBM Security Access Manager because the solution works fine, apart from the onboarding process and IBM's involvement in onboarding issues. If we need support related to the onboarding, we've noticed a pattern where support isn't available, or they don't have much experience, or we're not getting a response from them. We're facing the same issue with IBM Guardium. As we're just focusing on the multi-factor authentication feature of IBM Security Access Manager and we didn't explore any other features, we don't have additional features to suggest for the next release of the solution, but we're in discussion about exploring ID management and access management features, but those are just possibilities because right now, we're focused on exploring our domain."

"The user interface needs to be simplified, it's complex and not user-friendly."

"Configuration could be simplified for the end-user."

"There are a lot of areas that can be improved, but the main area is the lack of customization. You cannot easily customize anything in the product. It is not easy to tweak the functionality. It is challenging to change the out-of-the-box functionality."

"The user interface for users and administrators could be improved to make it easier. Automating some functions could also be beneficial."

"The solution could be classified as a hilt system. There are a lot of resources being used and it is suitable for very large enterprises or the public sector."

"They can improve the single sign-on configuration for OIDC and OAuth. That is not very mature in this product, and they can improve it in this particular area. OIDC is a third-party integration that we do with the cloud platforms, and OAuth is an authorization mechanism for allowing a user having an account with Google or any other provider to access an application. Organizations these days are looking for just-in-time provisioning use cases, but IBM Security Access Manager is not very mature for such use cases. There are only a few applications that can be integrated, and this is where this product is lagging. However, in terms of configuration and single sign-on mechanisms, it is a great product."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay an annual subscription fee."

"AWS' pricing is fair, and costs can be cut if you look carefully at when you're using it."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The pricing depends because with AWS there are two types of directory objects: 30,000 and 500,000. It varies. AWS provides the pricing calculators so we can get an estimate from there as per the company requirement of how many users and objects that we need to create. So we can go to that portal, put in the data, and get the quotation. There are no extra licensing fees. It's all included."

"It costs about 300K AED for a year. Its pricing is a bit on the higher end, but in comparison to other products in the market, its price is still better. There are lots of other products that are very costly."

"The license and costs depend on the amount range of users you have. For just approximately 2,000 users, the price is practical and fair. However, when you have 20,000 users, it starts to become really expensive, and the discount per user is not attractive enough to go ahead and purchase."

"The product is not expensive. It depends on the number of users."

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857,585 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Healthcare Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

26%

Insurance Company

15%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Directory Service?

The most valuable feature of AWS Directory Service is cost-cutting features.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Directory Service?

The pricing is very good because it is low and there is no management cost. You do not need to hire any system administrator to manage your Active Directory.

What needs improvement with AWS Directory Service?

Accessing the data needs improvement. Additionally, integration and compatibility with other AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) services, network open LDAP, support for on-premise and cloud envir...

What do you like most about IBM Security Access Manager?

The tool provides a password vault, single sign-on, and multifactor authentication. It offers various authentication methods like fingerprint integration, one-time passwords, or tokens sent via ema...

What needs improvement with IBM Security Access Manager?

The user interface for users and administrators could be improved to make it easier. Automating some functions could also be beneficial.

What advice do you have for others considering IBM Security Access Manager?

I rate the product an eight out of ten.

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Comparisons

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Compared 17% of the time

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Product Reports

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

Download AWS Directory Service product report

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

Download IBM Security Verify Access product report

Also Known As

AWS Managed Microsoft AD

IBM Security Verify Access (SVA), IBM Security Access Manager, ISAM

Overview

AWS Directory Service lets you run Microsoft Active Directory (AD) as a managed service. AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory, also referred to as AWS Managed Microsoft AD, is powered by Windows Server 2012 R2. When you select and launch this directory type, it is created as a highly available pair of domain controllers connected to your virtual private cloud (VPC). The domain controllers run in different Availability Zones in a region of your choice. Host monitoring and recovery, data replication, snapshots, and software updates are automatically configured and managed for you.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

IBM Security Verify Access is a complete authorization and network security policy management solution. It provides end-to-end protection of resources over geographically dispersed intranets and extranets.Provides a wide range of built-in authenticators and supports external authenticators.Provides permit and deny decisions for protected resources requests in the secure domain through the authorization API.Manages secure access to private internal network-based resources by using the public Internet's broad connectivity and ease of use with a corporate firewall system.

IBM

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

POST Luxembourg

AWS Directory Service vs. IBM Security Verify Access