ForgeRock Identity Platform

Organizations’ IAM needs vary widely and are changing rapidly, moving from homegrown tools to commercial off-the-shelf products and now toward both SaaS consumption and tightly integrated IAM embedded in business processes. This integration-driven direction increases demand for “Identity Platforms” that can be customized and woven directly into consumer-facing applications and services, either on-premises or as cloud-run API platforms.

Two digital transformation forces drive this shift: closer interaction with consumers/customers and the need to manage consumer IoT devices. Standard COTS IAM tools often fail to address these scenarios well because customer journeys and device ecosystems require deep integration, consistent interfaces, flexible authentication, and coordinated management of identities and “things.” Compared to traditional enterprise IAM—optimized for complex processes in structured environments with limited application integration—consumer IAM and IoT identity demand integration as a core capability.

Key platform requirements include scalability (from tens/hundreds of thousands of enterprise identities to millions or tens of millions of consumer identities, potentially far more when counting connected devices), flexibility (baseline UI and standardized capabilities plus extensive APIs and customization), and strong standards support to enable interoperable authentication, integration, and rapid adaptation.

ForgeRock is positioned as a leading Identity Platform provider, evolving from Sun Microsystems’ open-source IAM foundations into the ForgeRock Identity Platform. It unifies traditional ForgeRock components—Access Management, Identity Management, Identity Gateway, and User Managed Access—on shared platform services such as directory services, a REST framework, common UI, high availability/scalability, DevOps-friendly deployment (including Docker and automation), common audit and scripting, and open standards. Strengths include proven scale, consumer and IoT support, and standards engagement. Challenges include the absence of a defined cloud service offering and missing Access Governance, alongside open-source dependency risk mitigated by a managed enterprise version and established vulnerability patching processes.

• Traditional enterprise IAM typically manages tens or a few hundreds of thousands of identities.
• Consumer IAM must scale to millions and tens of millions of identities.
• Managing consumer IoT devices can push identity counts well beyond tens of millions.
• ForgeRock’s origins build on open-source IAM technologies created by Sun Microsystems.
• The ForgeRock Identity Platform includes Access Management (formerly OpenAM).
• The ForgeRock Identity Platform includes Identity Management (formerly OpenIDM).
• The ForgeRock Identity Platform includes Identity Gateway (formerly OpenIG).
• The platform includes User Managed Access supporting the UMA protocol.
• ForgeRock provides an enterprise version that is fully managed by ForgeRock and not publicly available for download.
• The Identity Platform can run on IaaS cloud infrastructure, but ForgeRock offers no standard cloud service offering.

• “Identity Platforms”, which allow for flexible customization of the IAM solution and integration into business solutions.
• “These challenges frequently can’t be solved well by just relying on a standard COTS IAM tool.”
• “IAM capabilities tend to become an integral part of new consumer-facing solutions created in the Digital Transformation.”
• “Traditional Enterprise IAM is focused on efficient and complex processes in a structured environment, with little integration into other applications.”
• “Consumer IAM must scale to millions and tens of millions.”
• “Supporting that integration, starting with a comprehensive and well-thought-out set of APIs, and flexible customization are essential for such platforms.”
• “Finally, there is the need for strong standards support.”
• “ForgeRock has a clear strategy for moving from a provider of open-source IAM products towards a provider of a highly scalable Identity Platform.”
• “Customers must be aware that the ForgeRock approach is developer-centric.”
• “In sum, ForgeRock delivers a strong and comprehensive offering for an Identity Platform and should be evaluated when looking at creating new business applications and services in the Digital Transformation that require strong support for IAM and the management of consumer IoT devices.”