What is IAM

Identity and access management (IAM) is the discipline that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons.
IAM addresses the mission-critical need to ensure appropriate access to resources across increasingly heterogeneous technology environments and to meet increasingly rigorous compliance requirements. IAM is a crucial undertaking for any enterprise. It is increasingly business-aligned, and it requires business skills, not just technical expertise.
Enterprises that develop mature IAM capabilities can reduce their identity management costs and, more importantly, become significantly more agile in supporting new business initiatives.
With the rapid growth and pace of digital business, IT leaders now recognize the importance of IAM. As a result, demand for IAM and digital identity technologies has increased significantly, along with rapid investment. The access management market is expected to reach $19 billion in 2024, up from $13.7 billion in 2021.
In an effort to make organizations more secure, agile and resilient, IAM leaders must improve governance and strengthen privileged access management (PAM) practices to prevent breaches, establish more robust and agile authentication and authorization, and enhance consumer IAM to prevent fraud and protect privacy.