Page 84 - Cyber Defense eMagazine February 2024

selection of solutions optimized to suit the business needs, the ability to collaborate and
seamlessly integrate is key for meeting future demands.
• Best of one world, worst of all others: Most platforms got their start by offering one great solution.
They then acquire one or more industry solutions in adjacent parts of IAM and position themselves
as a platform. But the level of integration is weak, and there is no added value unique to the
platform. In most cases, the added solutions to the platform are not leaders in their category but
are often second- or even third-tier, so customers adopting the platform are settling on subpar
technology for parts of their identity fabric.
• “Rip and replace” is for bandages only: IAM consists of many components. Most companies
already have several vendors in-house, providing Access Management (AM), Privileged Access
Management (PAM), Single-Sign On (SSO), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR),
Customer Identity Management (CIAM) or closely related functionality like Security Information
and Event Management (SIEM) solutions. Consolidation will take a long time, and the
dependency on a single vendor is a risk in a highly dynamic, regulated environment. Adding a
component that is focused on open integration with all kinds of systems is beneficial, as it frees
you from dependency, and allows you to always make the solution decision optimized to your
business needs. Selecting best-of-breed vendors, lowers the risk of functional lacks that can
become disruptive to the rest of your infrastructure in the process. Doing a “rip and replace” to
use the platform version is not ideal and adds unneeded costs to deployment.

The lesson here is to be aware of the impact that platform decisions have on your ability to stay agile,
scalable and simple. Best-of-breed solutions are highly relevant for large and complex enterprises.
Platform players are often a good solution for enterprises that are small, face no regulation, have no
complexity demands and are just dipping their toes in the IGA space. Evaluate your needs and do not
compromise on functionality.

Upgrade for your future security

Today, you’ve likely upgraded your music collection from CDs; now, it’s time to modernize identity
governance and administration (IGA) for your enterprise. Legacy systems consume time and resources
due to custom code maintenance. But Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based IGA solutions offer efficiency
and accessibility, and security automation is a central feature. Smaller, less complex organizations may
benefit from platform players, but larger enterprises should prioritize functionality and open integration to
meet evolving security and regulatory demands. Evaluate your needs and prioritize solutions that offer
open integration and independence from the single-vendor trend, ensuring robust IGA that aligns with
evolving security demands and regulatory requirements.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – February 2024 Edition 84
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