What essential service does "User-ID" provide beyond authentication?

User-ID plays a critical role in enhancing the visibility of user activities within a network, providing contextual information that goes beyond mere authentication. This feature associates user identities with IP addresses and allows for the tracking of user behavior across different applications and resources. By doing so, User-ID enables administrators to monitor user activities, enforce security policies based on user roles, and make more informed decisions about access controls and resource allocation.

This contextual visibility is crucial for identifying potential security threats, managing compliance requirements, and optimizing network performance based on user behavior. It allows for a more granular approach to network security, ensuring that access to applications and data can be dynamically adjusted based on user identity and context, rather than relying solely on static IP addresses.

The other options may encompass various important aspects of network management and security, but they do not focus specifically on the unique benefit that User-ID provides in terms of contextual visibility into user activities.