Leadership Compass

Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)

The term CIAM stands for Customer Identity and Access Management. This product/service category is wellestablished. CIAM solutions emerged and diverged from IAM products a few years ago in response to evolving business requirements that were consumer focused. Enterprise IAM solutions were deemed by some organizations as not meeting the complex and rapidly changing needs in the consumer space. Like IAM, CIAM solutions can be either hosted on-premises, in hybrid scenarios, or in the cloud. Most growth is in clouddelivered SaaS models today.  

Confirm participation by:

Jul 11, 2025

Estimated publication:

November 2025

Download the Questionnaire

Confirm Your Participation

How to Book a Briefing

Your Benefits

John Tolbert

This Leadership Compass will be an update of our previous report on Customer Identity and Access Management CIAM 2024.

The CIAM report will focus on consumer and citizen use case support. A separate report on B2B CIAM, which is a specialized domain within the broader IAM and CIAM markets, addressing the distinct identity lifecycle, security, and administrative needs of external users representing partner organizations, suppliers, contractors, or channel customers, will run concurrently with this one. These reports will share a questionnaire and briefing period. The B2B CIAM will publish later and is planned for February 2026. CIAM Vendors will be allowed to decide whether they wish to participate in one or both reports.

Topics covered in this Leadership Compass:

• Licensing models and costs

• Deployment models supported

• Solution architecture

• Account and device registration methods

• Account and credential recovery methods

• Account lifecycle management features

• Support for decentralized identities and identity federation

• Authenticators supported

• Risk-adaptive and/or continuous authentication features

• Availability of identity proofing functions or integration with third-party identity proofing services

• Utilization of compromised credential and fraud reduction intelligence

• Consumer user dashboards for managing personal information and consent preferences

• Support for consumer IoT device identity integration and management

• Built-in identity analytics and reports

• Built-in marketing analytics and/or APIs for interoperating with third-party marketing analytics and

automation tools, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Data Platform (CDP), and

Consent & Preference Management (CPM) solutions; integrations with payment services

How to Book a Briefing

Go to the KuppingerCole Booking Tool.
Under Select a Service, select Leadership Compass Briefing (45 mins).
Under Select Staff select John Tolbert.
Choose date and time between Aug 11th and Sept 11th that are convenient for your team.
You will receive an MS Teams invite.
Please prepare a slide deck and provide it to the analyst.

CIAM recommended Briefing Outline

The briefing should give an overview presentation of these key topic areas, as well as a demo of the product capabilities. Please prepare a slide deck and send it to us before the call.

Company Overview (<10 minutes):

If not provided on the questionnaire, then please describe revenue and/or funding, number of employees, regional/global focus for sales/marketing, partner ecosystem, target audience for the product
There is no need to cover CIAM basics in this session
Roadmap and strategy

Key product/service topics to cover for demo:

Orchestration capabilities for third-party services (as related to components below)
Authentication & authorization policy management, focusing on MFA/passwordless and risk-adaptive methods
Credential management
Account lifecycle management
Identity federation and decentralized identity
Identity verification service provider integrations
Identity & marketing analytics
IoT device identity integration
SaaS, CDP, and payment services integration
Privacy & consent management in the user portal
Centralized console to manage key capabilities/features, dashboard, etc.
Support for audit, compliance, and reporting

Note: demo does NOT need to include registration or authentication examples, unless there are specific innovations to consider.

The demo can be live or recorded. If the demo is not recorded beforehand, we will request permission to record the demo during the meeting.

Book a Briefing

Your Benefits of Participation

Benefit from Third-Party Attestation

Receive an objective evaluation of your solution that you can easily integrate into your marketing strategy. Our vendor neutral approach ensures results are trustworthy and credible. Use this assessment as a powerful marketing asset to enhance customer trust.

Increase Brand Awareness

Share your cybersecurity expertise with the world. By participating in our analysis, you gain a platform to spotlight your company. Boost your visibility and establish yourself as a leading provider in the industry.

Get Insights Into Competing Solutions

Discover how your solution compares with others in the industry. Our analysis provides insights not only into your solution but also valuable information about competitors. Utilize this knowledge to strengthen your position in the market.

Gain Valuable Insights on Your Market Standing

Benefit from a thorough, complimentary evaluation of your solution. KuppingerCole Analysts will evaluate not only your product but also your positioning in the market. Seize this opportunity to receive valuable feedback and make your solution even more effective.