By Philip Booth | 4-minute read | September 26, 2023
Big Picture
Businesses are seeking access management (AM) solutions that are more robust and richer with features than earlier generations of AM software. In this environment, identity threat detection and response and identity access management (IAM) convergence and resilience are rapidly scaling the high-priority list for many organizations.
Faced with accelerating cyberthreats and challenged by economic constraints, organizations are realizing that a powerful, cost-effective access management platform is increasingly pivotal to their IAM strategy.
AM platforms support security assertion markup language (SAML), open authorization (OAuth) and other identity protocols, making them essential to a zero trust approach
Today, less than 20% of organizations use an AM tool. By implementing AM, you stand to sharpen your competitive edge against later adopters.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, nine out of 10 businesses will use an embedded identity threat detection and response function from access management software as their first line of defense against identity attacks.
Access management tools are adding adjacent IAM functions, especially identity governance and administration (IGA) features, to strengthen their position as converged platforms.
As internal AM use cases become mainstream and commoditized, most of AM vendors’ growth stems from addressing customer requirements for external AM use cases, specifically business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B) and government-to-constituent (G2C).
There’s accelerating interest in more efficient low-code/no-code approaches to orchestrating authentication and authorization flows. Consequently, more vendors are adding this functionality.
Directory services. Features for managing internal and external types of identities, and providing directory and identity synchronization services leveraging system for cross-domain identity management (SCIM)
Internal access administration. An application launchpad, and basic life cycle management and user administration capabilities for internal identities
Disparate stakeholders with varying goals for external and internal users often champion AM initiatives. But initiatives focused on only one population can be costly and lack necessary features when extended to another.
AM capabilities continue to grow, overlapping and converging with adjacent IAM and security markets such as user authentication, identity governance and administration (IGA) and application programming interface (API) security. This complicates mapping an organization’s IAM business requirements and use cases relevant to access management.
Shortlisting vendors for an RFP process is complicated by the sheer number of vendors, which vary in the number and type of capabilities they deliver.
Facilitate a single-vendor strategy by evaluating tools’ capabilities essential to internal and external use cases.
Carefully evaluate the roadmap of converged adjacent IAM capabilities in software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivered access management tools.
“Access management is increasingly pivotal to organizations’ IAM strategies and is now a prime target for attackers. Modern threats and economic constraints demand more resilient and cost-effective access management. Identity threat detection and response, IAM convergence and resilience will only become more important going forward.”
3 things to tell your peers
A robust access management solution is essential to effectively executing your identity AM strategies.
Your AM platform should satisfy multiple populations within your organization, including those who have varying goals for external and internal users.
Directory services, internal and external access administration, authorization and adaptive access, SSO and session management and user authentication are among the must-haves for access management software.
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Henrique Teixeira is a Research Senior Director Analyst in the IT Leaders organization at Gartner, and chair of the Gartner IAM Summit in North America. Henrique is focused in helping leaders to make smart and fast decisions by providing insights about the latest IAM trends, predictions and actionable best practices. Henrique is the lead author of the Magic Quadrant for Access Management.
