The lifecycle of technology innovation and adoption is circular. Point solutions and technologies are developed to solve a specific problem. Over time, these point solutions evolve, blend, and merge to help solve a larger overarching challenge.

Identity security is currently going through the blending cycle as security leaders recognize the need to combine capabilities such as identity governance, privileged access, and application governance to reduce threat landscapes and simplify competing demands for better security, authentication, and access. As they have, converged identity platforms (CIPs) have been introduced to help organizations better manage their identity security programs.

In fact, by next year, 70% of new access management, governance, administration, and privileged access deployments will be converged platforms, Gartner reports. 

Software Suites vs. Converged Solutions

Historically, many technology vendors have built out product suites to address a single overarching challenge. In this case, identity security. These suites have been a collection of disparate technologies and either branded or bundled together due to their commonalities, providing support for gaps in the other products.

Suites can have their drawbacks as they are often a set of products that simply share a brand name. The different software products may have been built by different companies and brought together via a merger or acquisition. Suites often have the same challenges as point products though. Upgrades may be delivered at different times, impacting other applications. Compatibility and integration between solutions could be lacking, preventing the use of automation, segregation of duty discovery, and more. Management consoles and reporting capabilities could be separate, necessitating the need for increased management or reliance on manual processes. In short, suites often hinder the advancement of security programs.

Converged identity platforms eliminate many of the challenges commonly found with solution suites. A CIP is a single solution that supports multiple identity security features and capabilities. Every feature shares the same underlying code, processes, user interface, and reporting, providing a seamless experience for all administrators and end users. CIPs offer a variety of capabilities that vary widely depending on the vendor and the initial problem they were solving (e.g. IGA, PAM, third-party governance, etc.).

By consolidating all of the core features, governance, and reporting, organizations are able to increase security while lowering implementation and operational costs. Centralized reporting helps eliminate the challenges around audits and providing compliance with requisite regulations or industry mandates on a continuous basis.

At the end of the day, a CIP should help you:

Adopting a CIP should help organizations simplify their IT and security stacks while providing strong identity security governance. Reducing the number of different platforms and technologies needing management speeds the identification of anomalous activity or misconfigured access. By consolidating capabilities and maintaining as much flexibility as possible, organizations can simplify management, and increase productivity and ROI, while future proofing their security program.