IAM at 2035

Coming q1 2025

IAM at 2035: A Future Guide to Identity Security

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IAM at 2035: A Future Guide to Identity Security.

Identity is more vital than ever before. Empowering organisations to improve productivity, security and revenue. However, it is fragmented and has become an attack vector for adversarial activity.

After 250+ interviews over 2 years, with vendors, consultants and practitioners, the author of CIAM Design Fundamentals Simon Moffatt has embarked upon a new project:

To describe where identity may end up a decade from now.

1: IAM Where We Were

A look back to IAM from 2000 onwards, primarily as a B2E compliance initiative.

2: IAM Where We Are

IAM is now foundational for employee productivity, employee security, customer engagement and customer privacy.

3: Increase in Identity Types

We now have to consider delivering solutions for employees, customers and non-humans too.

4: Increase in Capacity

The volume of identities has increased as has the throughput and capacity requirements.

5: Increase in Objects Requiring Protection

The assets and objects our identities need to access has increased hugely – from APIs, to AI data sets and infrastructure.

6: Deployment Inconsistency.

Our IAM components are no longer on premises – we have hybrid cloud, SaaS and containers to support too.

7: Identity as an Attack Vector

Adversarial activity from both internal and external actors is targeting all facets of the IAM life cycle.

8: App Agility Reduction

Our application and service deployment processes are being limited by poor IAM.

9: Business Agility Reduction

As our apps and services are becoming slower and more fragile to deploy, the business suffers.

10: Tech Efficacy Reduction

Regular swap outs, tactical solutions and lack of IAM technical strategy becomes common.

11: Risk Increases

A lack of visibility, observability and security controls assurance sees business risk rise.

12: Organisational Framing

Let us understand the future business problems for greenfield and brownfield ecosystems.

13: Innovation Inflection

IAM progress is sitting in two camps: incremental and radical.

14: Vision

Using Models, Matrices and Assumptions we build a framework for a possible new IAM world.

15: E2E Interaction Assurance

Analysis of the functional and non-functional opportunities needed to support intent and attribution for a broad spectrum identity risk model.

16: Conclusions

A discussion on how both industry and solution providers can get there.