Design-first principles strengthen the identity security fabric – News

Identity security fabric is becoming critical in the age of artificial intelligence agents. Organizations face mounting pressure to protect both human and non-human identities as technology grows more complex and unpredictable.

A design-first approach helps weave together fragmented tools into a unified identity security fabric. This vision is centered on openness and user experience, ensuring that security is both seamless and trustworthy, according to Kristen Swanson (pictured), senior vice president of design and research at Okta Inc.

“Imagine you’re making a wonderful meal,” she told theCUBE. “You wouldn’t keep all the vegetables separate from all of the potatoes and all the meats. You would mix them together, you would let those flavors blend … and it would just taste great. That’s exactly how you need all of your identity portfolio to be. When you’re using identity security, you don’t want to think about, ‘Does this tool talk to this tool?’ You just want it to work. And that’s really what the fabric is all about.”

Swanson spoke with theCUBE’s Rebecca Knight and Jackie McGuire at Okta’s Oktane event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, News Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the identity security fabric, design-first principles and the role of standards in enabling trust. (* Disclosure below.)

Weaving simplicity and safety into an identity security fabric

The value of a unified fabric lies in orchestration — automating governance and workflows to minimize overhead for IT and security teams, according to Swanson. This approach shifts security from being a blocker to becoming a trusted partner.

“I think there are many people out there who are like, ‘Hey, you can get it all from one place,’” she said. “But again, it’s really about this idea of orchestration. Does the fact that something is in the registry here mean that it can be automatically ingested into workflows over here or automatically kick off a governance campaign and you don’t have to go through all this hard work of setting everything up everywhere? When something happens, we detect a risk; you are able to just seamlessly see it all the way through to remediation, without any extra work or headache for you.”

Standards also play a pivotal role in ensuring interoperability across ecosystems. Open frameworks enable organizations to select technologies that best fit their needs without compromising security, according to Swanson.

“I think if you really come back to … our vision, which is to free everyone to safely use every technology, that doesn’t necessarily mean every person is going to use Okta, but we still want them to be safe,” she said. “We still want them to be able to use the technology that they need. This is really where standards rise, all shifts in that security tide, so that things can talk to each other seamlessly and people can make the choices that are right for them, all while staying safe. I think it’s so important.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of News’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Okta’s Oktane event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Oktane. Neither Okta Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or News.)

Photo: News