The Best IAM Tools

Identity & Access Management is mandatory for security-conscious companies in the zero trust era. These are the best IAM providers and tools.

Photo: ne2pi – shutterstock.com

Identity is becoming the new perimeter: Companies are relying less and less on traditional perimeter defenses and are forcing the switch to zero trust environments. Secure access and identity management form the foundation of any cybersecurity strategy. At the same time, the way people, applications and systems log in and connect with each other also ensures that new, visible touchpoints emerge for business stakeholders.

Security experts walk a fine line between user-friendliness and security: lax controls and authentication mechanisms make companies vulnerable – control measures that are too strict disrupt the flow of business.

IAM-Tools in Wandel

The good – and at the same time bad – news for companies that want to work in the area of Identity & Access Management (IAM): When it comes to tools, this sector is now more differentiated and more powerful than ever before. IAM tools can now significantly reduce the complexity of various tasks. For example when it comes to:

Manage identities in hybrid and multi-cloud environments
control privileged accounts,
Analyze login patterns
based on risk factors or
Automate provisioning and other elements of the user lifecycle.

“Whether it’s advanced process analytics, integration with cloud service providers for improved workload management, or unifying the user experience with AI, organizations now have more functionality than ever before to build robust IAM initiatives,” said Naresh Persaud, Managing Director at Deloitte.

This development has led to the formation of many small sub-markets – some of which have independent products and some features that are part of a broader platform. Since the providers in this area are rapidly coming together, it can be expected that they will stimulate each other to a large extent and that comprehensive functionalities will emerge. In short: There are a variety of options that can lead to IAM analysis paralysis.

“Some vendors focus exclusively on Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), others on Privileged Access Management (PAM) – both of which are critical elements of an effective identity program. The authentication area is probably the one with the most product diversity, with many vendors in the industry offering multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions,” explains JR Cunningham, CSO at managed service provider Nuspire. “It is therefore essential for companies to define their current capabilities and requirements to ensure that the products they choose meet them.”

Recommended Identity & Access Management Tools

In the following paragraph we have put together some of the best providers in the IAM sector for you – including assessments from analyst firms Gartner and Forrester. These identity and access management providers and tools should be on CISOs’ list.