Identity and access management (IAM) systems represent the front door to every digital organization. They can provide a welcoming experience, or they can make it difficult to get in. They can provide security, ensuring that those entering can see what they’re authorized to see and nothing else. If they know you, they can wave you in. If they don’t, they can ask for proof of identity. In the digital world, all of these experiences, and many more, are made possible by identity orchestration. Orchestration is a critical function for digital businesses because it makes it possible to create differentiated, personalized experiences for customers, provide the workforce with fast access to the right resources, and protect data and assets by blocking suspicious access attempts. This paper analyses the ForgeRock Identity Platform’s built-in orchestration capabilities, which include a visual designer and drag-and-drop nodes for mapping out journeys based on the context of the access request.

1 Introduction

Identity and access management (IAM) is a core component of the enterprise IT infrastructure and central to protecting digital corporate assets. By enabling enterprises to manage and govern identities and the assets they are authorized to access, IAM can ensure that the right entities — including people, applications/workloads, and devices — can access the right resources at the right time, while preventing unauthorized access, a leading cause of data breaches.

IAM plays a key role in the enterprise security ecosystem and can help organizations move towards "least-privileged” access, a core principle of the Zero Trust security framework. A well-constructed identity orchestration tool in IAM can help organizations gain end-to-end visibility of all identities and entitlements. It can consolidate identity silos to remove gaps between controls for the cloud and those for legacy on-prem systems. And it can govern access controls for all, automate routine workflow tasks, and dramatically reduce risk.

Most organizations operate in a hybrid environment with a combination of legacy systems and apps that coexist with cloud services. Enabling easy, consistent access to applications is business-critical no matter where those applications are hosted. A unified IAM platform can make your workforce more efficient and productive, with single sign-on (SSO) and other tools that work across on-prem and multi-cloud environments. For your customers, it can create frictionless, targeted experiences that lead to greater satisfaction and loyalty.

Organizations are under intense pressure to differentiate themselves by delivering new digital initiatives and innovative services without disruption. At the same time, they have to protect their digital assets, systems, and data, while maintaining regulatory compliance, all in an increasingly complex IT environment amid a sophisticated threat landscape.

An integrated IAM platform can help organizations modernize IT and achieve their goals for workforce productivity, customer satisfaction, stronger security, greater agility, and faster innovation.

The Essence of IAM: Identity Orchestration

Identity orchestration is at the heart of delivering frictionless user experiences. It facilitates the creation of digital identity journeys that deliver security and the right level of friction for end users, whether they are employees or customers. Homegrown IAM solutions used by many enterprises are doing a suboptimal job of addressing modern threats or the rising user expectations for excellent digital experiences.

Orchestration for the workforce

Orchestration plays a vital role in business enablement when it comes to the needs of employees, contractors, business partners, and customers to access specific applications, systems, and data.

While access in the workplace was once far simpler, and could be handled through onboarding, today’s environment is far too complex, with far too many identities, to be handled manually. People are constantly moving, changing roles, and leaving companies, which leads to the risk of over-provisioned access. Identity orchestration can help ensure that user journeys are fulfilled or denied as appropriate, permissions are granted or revoked, and that accounts are deleted or deactivated once they are no longer required.

Orchestration for customers

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, delivering differentiated customer experiences has become a strategic priority for corporations. The digital experience served can mean the difference between customer acquisition and conversion or a lost opportunity and shopping cart abandonment. Organizations are looking to drive better and faster engagement that keeps customers on the site longer and brings them back again and again.

But just as the need for hyper-personalization intensifies, so does the need for customer data security and privacy. Businesses are losing millions of dollars annually to online fraud, such as account takeover, through malicious actors.

In this executive view, we discuss ForgeRock’s next-generation identity orchestration features that deliver superior digital identity experiences, block fraudulent activities, and reduce complexity.

ForgeRock Identity Orchestration

1 Introduction

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