“WSO2 Identity Server Named a Leader in Kuppingercole’s Leadership Compass on Identity API Platforms” Why You Need to Care?
In the KuppingerCole Identity API Platforms Leadership Compass 2019 report published on August 30, 2019, named Forgerock, Ping Identity, WSO2 (WSO2 Identity Server), Okta and Auth0 as overall leaders. The report’s findings were based on an evaluation of 13 software vendors that KuppingerCole has identified as the most significant Identity API Platform providers. Companies identified as overall leaders were recognized for demonstrating leadership in three areas: product, innovation, and market. Here it will summarize this comprehensive research and discuss why you should care about it.
APIs are key components in any Digital Transformation journey. APIs are enabling organizations to create new business models, connect with partners and customers while providing a seamless experience by linking systems and services together. When it comes to Identity and access management market its equally important to expose IAM and security services as APIs in this API economy.
If we look back, how IAM evolved in to this stage. Traditionally IAM infrastructure ran within the enterprise premises. Solutions were more monolithic, most of the time home grown and identities were managed in on-premises. Then with the identity federation, it provided the capability of separating identity and access management from the applications and allowed to secure exchange user information that could be between divisions with organizations or between organizations.
With the emergence of cloud services IDasS gave organizations a new options to use IAM features as a cloud service. Customer IAM requirements go beyond the regular IAM needs. Better use experience, support for mobile devices, social identity integrations, scalability and privacy compliance such as GDPR, PSD2 or CCPA, were key requirements in customer Identity and access management(CIAM)
With the needs of emerging IT requirements such as hybrid environments that span across on-premise, cloud, even multi-cloud environments, supporting the different functional requirements of IAM, Federation, IDaaS & CIAM, evolve identity and access management into its next phase which is Identity APIs platforms.
By exposing key functionality via APIs, it allows for workflow and orchestration capabilities across environments as well as better DevOps support through automation and it makes IAM solutions more developer-centric.
Identity API Platform share many of the same capabilities available in IAM/CIAM, IDaaS and Strong/ Adaptive and Risk based authentication, platforms but need to be available as APIs. Key functional areas focused in this leadership compass are.
Identity & User Mgmt APIs : APIs that allow for the management of identities and user account management, including associated directory services and databases.
Authentication APIs : Authentication method support via APIs within the range of username/password to bio-metrics and anything in between. Also, consideration of SSO and session management availability.
Authorization APIs : APIs that controls user or administrator permission/access rights to resources such as policy management, RBAC, or dynamic authorization.
Audit & Compliance APIs : APIs that support monitoring of a user’s access to resources, or administrators changes to the system, as well as APIs that provide auditing and forensic capabilities to aid in industry compliance use cases and security incident analysis as examples.
Workflow & Orchestration APIs : APIs that allow for the automation of workflows such as access requests, user self-registration or user consent, or the orchestration of more than one workflow or activity.
API security : A solution’s ability to secure APIs against hacker attacks and other threats using methods such as encryption, rate limiting, content filtering, and schema validation.
DevOps APIs : APIs that provide IT environment support options for both developers and the operations team with their tools, automation, and continuous integration.
API Developer Support : The vendor’s ability to support the developers using the solution’s APIs through documentation, tutorials, and tools as well as Knowledge-base, Community support / platform for developer.
Why WSO2 Identity Server?
WSO2 Identity Server has been named an overall leader, as well as a market leader, Innovation leader, and product leader in this leadership compass. Among the other key IAM platforms in leader category, which provides the same functionalities, WSO2 Identity server shines with its 100% open source nature which is another great win for open source IAM.
Find more of WSO2 Identity Server here.
