Identity and Access Management

The Evolution of Identity

Identity and Access Management has always been one of the most daunting challenges for any I.T. organization. In the early days of IAM, it was widely perceived as a low-level, tactical I.T. function comprising simple use cases such as password management and single sign-on. Early pure play offerings focused primarily on operational needs, delivering basic credential management tools that rarely added significant business value.

By the mid-2000s, the focus had shifted to automated user provisioning, as organizations sought to achieve operational efficiencies by eliminating manual business processes, even while dealing with increasingly stringent regulatory mandates. This led to the emergence of complex identity suites that were expensive to implement, difficult to maintain, and often failed to deliver promised benefits due to the continued focus on IAM as an I.T. “tool” rather than as a corporate governance asset.

In an environment where mobile computing, cloud applications, data privacy and geographically diverse workforces are creating entirely new security and regulatory challenges for organizations, the distinction between business and I.T. governance has become increasingly vague. As the IAM space continues to mature, it is emerging from the I.T. back office to become a vital component of effective corporate governance. Next generation identity solutions reflect this maturation, having evolved from complex operational “tools” into business-relevant risk management platforms.

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