More and more, Identity and Access Management (IAM) professionals are being pulled into projects that go beyond their traditional purview of workforce identity management. Their scope of influence and responsibility is expanding into customer-facing strategic business initiatives as new technologies transform the edge of the enterprise. In addition to Customer Identity Management projects that support digital consumer engagement, a major trend demanding increased IAM involvement is the Internet of Things (IoT).
To say that IoT is growing fast is an understatement. Gartner says that the number of IoT devices has increased by as much as 30 percent since last year, and their 2016 prediction that stated 5.5 million new things will be connected to the Internet each day is now reality.
IoT devices are an extension of the customer experience. Consequently, these devices need to be linked to human identities, and as IoT devices evolve and become more advanced, they will store increasingly sensitive customer data. In short, IoT needs identity management.
However, it’s interesting to note that of all the IoT projects being initiated across a diverse range of industries, many of these projects are not run by IT. A recent survey of US-based enterprises shows that IoT ownership is shared roughly equally across three main business segments: operations, business and IT. This dynamic closely mirrors the breakdown of Customer Identity Management (CIM) ownership. Gartner reports that CIM projects are also evenly split between three main segments: business, application development teams and enterprise IT/IAM groups.
A parallel trend to note is that even when IT is not the CIM project owner, IT and IAM professionals are being pulled onto implementation teams. Business leaders recognize that successfully launching these customer engagement programs is a complex, multi-faceted undertaking that requires specific IAM expertise.
As IoT follows a trajectory similar to CIM, a new question emerges. Will the trend of IAM professionals being called upon to support a broader scope of projects repeat itself in the IoT world?
We believe it will for many reasons. Identity management is a specialized skillset that encompasses many of the concerns inherent to getting IoT right. Scale, performance, data security, multi-factor authentication are crucial to IoT’s success.
Yet, there are some key differences between IAM for workforce and CIM use cases and IAM for IoT. It’s important that IAM professionals become fluent in IoT’s distinct characteristics, such as device authentication, device registration, communications protocols and standards as well as the new IoT business models and business metrics. With this additional understanding, IAM pros can leverage the in-demand skills they have honed over their career into even greater value for their organizations facing new digital business challenges.
