Series: Trends in Identity and Access Management
The IAM market which was sized at about $10 Billion at the start of 2019 is poised to double itself to $20 Billion in 2025, in just 6 years. This growth is being fueled by an increasing number of mid-market companies that are implementing IAM solutions to protect themselves from threats to their networks, systems, and users.
Various factors have contributed to this growth in the mid-market segment, and we have noted some of these below.
Mid-market companies are feeling the high cost of Compliance and regulatory requirements and therefore desire to address these efficiently. Mid-market organizations are now discovering how an IAM program can help them achieve their compliance and regulatory requirements efficiently. These organizations either used custom programs to ensure compliance to SOX and other industry regulations or handled these processes manually. Automating these processes using policy-based Access, provisioning and de-provisioning is helping such organizations achieve compliance and that too with a positive ROI. Also, an increase in digitization in these organizations makes it difficult, if not impossible, to implement consistent Access policies without having an Identity Management and Access solution in place.
Growing security concern among the mid-market segment, who have been racked with incidents of ransomware and phishing scams. Ransomware attacks cost US organizations an estimated $7.5 Billion in 2019. Datto’s Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report puts SMBs (small and medium sized businesses) as the most vulnerable segment for ransomware attacks. The scale of such attacks is increasing in recent times as organizations have been forced to let their employees work remotely, outside of the protective perimeter of the organization's firewall.
This is pushing the mid-market segment to invest more in IAM solutions as a preventive measure against external threats. These organizations are rapidly procuring Access Management solutions as their first foray into the IAM space. We expect that mid-market organizations will quickly realize the value of investing in a IGA solution (for policy-based provisioning and managing access roles) and will expand their IAM program accordingly.
Steady evolution of the Identity and Access Management vendors from complex and highly expensive applications that provided basic functions to simpler and cheaper solutions that provide a wide range of functionality. The new breed of IAM solutions are much different from the first generation of IAM products - we see open architectures, micro-services, small footprint, SaaS offerings, cloud compatibility. Earlier versions of IAM solutions were expensive for mid-market customers - even if the licenses were affordable, implementations would be several times the cost of the product. The current generation of products is simpler to implement, provides best of breed and api-driven integration approaches. Some SaaS vendors are also providing as-a-service pricing models, allowing even small organizations to adopt IAM solutions, without a huge upfront investment.
Incorporation of AI in the IAM process which helps in detection as well as prevention of unauthorized access. Many Access Management products have incorporated AI to provide an adaptive approach to detect and manage potential breaches. The AI component “learns” each user’s usage patterns and flags any anomalies in the pattern. Organizations can set up policies to address these anomalies, including challenging with a 2nd factor or shutting down access based on policy. Other areas where AI is being incorporated is for automatically managing accounts for users based on similarity with existing user accounts, reducing the risk of unnecessary access.
Formmi’s position on this market trend: Formmi is uniquely positioned to understand the IAM requirements of the mid-market customers. Our service products have also been developed for the mid-market segment, keeping time and cost in mind.
We see a number of vendors tailoring their products for the mid-market segment, offering à la carte solutions instead of the traditional full-feature license sales. We are especially seeing the growth of SaaS products with adequate functionality for mid-market organizations that have the same governance and compliance requirements as larger organizations but do not have the same complex or legacy business processes.
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