Commissioned by Clear Skye
1 Introduction / Executive Summary
IAM is an established element of today's IT infrastructures. However, with changing requirements, and the fact that many IAM implementations are based on mature on-premises solutions, there is an increasing need for IAM modernization. Supporting SaaS solutions and IaaS, as well as the demand for running IAM in new forms of Target Operating Models (TOM), as-a-service, is changing the requirements and perspectives on how a modern IAM solution should look like.
Similar changes can be observed for other areas of IT. Modern TOMs and delivery of solutions as SaaS have become the new normal. Additionally, ITSM (IT Service Management) has evolved from a technical solution for managing IT services and ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) processes into a strategic element of IT, bundling service request interfaces for users, and evolving into ESM (Enterprise Service Management).
Doing IAM modernization right requires taking a broad perspective. It requires understanding of:
- current and future requirements for IAM
- the challenges and shortcomings of IAM in typical, traditional deployments
- the evolution of the application landscape towards SaaS deployments and multi-cloud, multi-hybrid infrastructures, as well as the role legacy IT applications will play in future
- the IAM ecosystem, i.e., the ITSM solutions, business applications, and other elements that are here and that require IAM integration
There are various ways to go forward with IAM modernization to cover all the challenges involved. However, integration between ITSM and IAM always will be required, specifically for the IGA (Identity Governance and Administration) part of IAM. For organizations that have opted for a strategic ITSM solution, specifically ServiceNow, this also raises the question of how to best deploy the future IGA: Integrated with ServiceNow or built on top of ServiceNow? Doing the latter can provide distinct advantages to the customers, as reference implementations prove.
