The Future of Identity and Access Management: Top Four Priorities

The nexus of forces — social, mobile, cloud and information — is bringing new challenges and opportunities for identity and access management (IAM). Chief information and security officers (CISOs) and IAM leaders must keep sight of the demands of day-to-day operations, governance, risk management and compliance, while extending their vision to include the nexus and the delivery of meaningful, business-focused results.

The nexus of forces is already having a tactical impact on IAM. Businesses must manage identity in an increasingly hybrid world in which legacy on-premises IAM infrastructures are extended or replaced to support software as a service and mobile endpoints. Identities established on social media platforms are also being used for enterprise system access. Organizations that fail to get to grips with the challenges and opportunities of the nexus risk falling behind.

This slideshow features key actions, identified by Gartner, for CISOs and IAM managers to prioritize in 2013, in light of trends in the IAM market.

Click through for four priorities critical to the future of IAM, as identified by Gartner.

Every program needs solid foundations. Establishing a strategic vision for your IAM program is crucial, and this means being able to articulate its overall business value. IAM managers also need to know how to communicate, how to make the right decisions about IAM initiatives, and how to place IAM in the context of enterprise architecture.

It’s important to understand what’s going on in the world of IAM today. What are your peers doing? How can you best use the technology you have to achieve your desired results with a minimum of wasted effort and expense?

The nexus of forces — social, mobile, cloud and information — is already having a tactical impact on IAM, and a number of issues are on everyone’s mind. You need to separate fact from hype, and understand where and how IAM can support business objectives. You also need to exploit emerging trends and technologies, and assess how your strategic vision can reflect the nexus of forces.

IAM, security and risk management are related disciplines that overlap both in terms of business objectives and the technologies used. Both aspects must be considered to get the most out of your investment and to maintain a robust, multifaceted approach to IAM, infrastructure protection and risk management within your organization. It’s therefore essential to understand how IAM and security and risk management tools and techniques complement each other.