IDaaS Access Management

KuppingerCole’s Leadership Compass reviews the Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) market with a focus on Access Management (IDaaS AM), a fast-growing segment driven by demand for quicker time-to-value than on-premises IAM and the need to secure expanding SaaS portfolios. IDaaS has matured from early web-centric SSO use cases into broader IAM delivery across diverse application models, though hybrid IT support—especially integration with legacy on-premises applications—remains a central challenge. The report groups common IDaaS capabilities into identity administration (provisioning, lifecycle, repositories, connectors, self-service), access management (authentication, authorization, SSO, federation, standards support, API security, social identities), and access governance (often least mature and frequently retained on-prem for control and auditing). Adoption is also constrained by data residency concerns, reliance on provider security controls, and customization needs.

Vendors originate from different histories (access management, IGA, or traditional SSO), leading to uneven strengths. The market is also blurred by offerings that resemble managed services; KuppingerCole prioritizes customer-relevant elasticity and pay-per-use licensing when deciding inclusion. Key trends include lightweight API security additions, overlap with EMM and CASB for mobility and SaaS access brokering, increasing CIAM-driven needs (social login, profiling, fraud/risk intelligence, privacy and consent management), and the strategic importance of open standards (e.g., SAML, OAuth, OpenID Connect, SCIM).

In Overall Leadership for IDaaS AM, Microsoft leads, followed closely by Okta; IBM and Ping Identity advance, with OneLogin, Idaptive, RSA Security, and Auth0 also in the leaders segment. Correlated matrices show weak alignment between product maturity and market power in this evolving segment, highlighting both large “overperformers” and smaller vendors with strong product/innovation but less market reach.

• The IDaaS market size at the end of 2018 was approximately $1.06 billion.
• KuppingerCole estimated the global IDaaS market to grow at a CAGR of 24% in 2019.
• IDaaS is delivered as SaaS hosted and managed by the IDaaS vendor itself.
• Offerings based on running another vendor’s on-premises software as a hosted/managed service are not considered IDaaS.
• Microsoft held the leadership position in Overall Leadership for the IDaaS AM market, with Okta following closely.
• Overall Leaders listed were Auth0, IBM, Idaptive, Microsoft, Okta, OneLogin, Ping Identity, and RSA Security.
• Tools4ever was the only vendor placed in the followers’ segment in Overall Leadership.
• Market Leaders listed were IBM, Microsoft, Okta, OneLogin, Ping Identity, RSA Security, and Thales.
• In the Market/Product matrix upper-right box, Microsoft, Okta, IBM, Ping Identity, OneLogin, and RSA Security led in both product and market ratings.
• Access governance capabilities were described as least mature and largely absent from most IDaaS vendor portfolios.

• “Generally speaking, supporting hybrid IT environments is amongst the main challenges for IDaaS, across all areas.”
• “As the IDaaS market continues to evolve, its adoption is inhibited by several factors including the concerns of data residency, dependency on providers internal security controls and the ability to address scenarios that require extensive customizations…”
• “IDaaS AM offers a springboard for most organizations to start using foundational IAM elements delivered from the cloud and move rest of the IAM functions as they find it appropriate…”
• “Pure-play SaaS solutions are multi-tenant by design.”
• “From that perspective, two aspects are of highest relevance: Elasticity of the service and a pay-per-use license model.”
• “We have observed some traction in extending IDaaS AM solutions to cater to light-weight API security requirements…”
• “It is therefore important that security and IAM leaders understand the organization’s mobility and cloud access brokering requirements…”
• “Lastly, the support for open identity standards is seen to increasingly shape the direction and define the success of IDaaS implementations.”
• “Access governance still remains largely unaddressed by most IDaaS vendors today.”
• “Vendors above the line are sort of ‘overperformers’ when comparing Market Leadership and Product Leadership.”