Enhancing Risk Management through Utilization of an Application Fiber
Eric Olden, as the CEO of Strata Identity, is an enterprise cloud identity expert and a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits under his belt. He's also a co-author of the SAML SSO standard.
With applications becoming increasingly distributed among on-premises data centers, cloud environments, and SaaS platforms, securing them and managing compliance becomes challenging. As the application footprint of an enterprise grows, so does the risk. This is especially true in cases of mergers and acquisitions, where thousands of new applications can instantly join an organization's portfolio, overwhelming security teams. Shadow IT, or applications deployed without IT oversight, further complicates matters. Often, organizations don't even know how many applications they have, let alone who has access to them.
To address these challenges, many organizations are turning to application fabrics. An application fabric provides a centralized framework to manage, govern, and secure applications at scale. Similar to how an identity fabric connects and governs identity systems, an application fabric creates an abstraction layer that enables visibility, governance, and risk management for applications across diverse platforms and identity providers (IDPs).
Key to its functionality is the ability to continuously discover and inventory applications, classify them based on criticality and risk, and enforce ownership and delegated administration. This centralized approach enables enterprises to overcome fragmentation by applying consistent policies for access, authentication, and auditing across their entire application portfolio. For instance, a new application can be governed consistently when an organization acquires a company with a different IT stack, without overhauling either environment or disruption to the users.
Addressing Application Risks
Without a centralized framework, addressing risks related to applications is challenging. Organizations often lack a complete inventory of their applications, resulting in security blind spots and unmanaged risks. This leads to fragmented governance, authentication weaknesses, and evolving ecosystems that frequently outpace risk assessments and governance efforts.
An application fabric addresses these challenges by creating a unified repository of application data and enabling consistent governance across the enterprise. Continuous discovery tools automatically inventory applications across on-premises and cloud environments, providing up-to-date insights into authentication methods, risk profiles, and access controls. Centralized reporting simplifies compliance, while actionable insights help organizations prioritize improvements, such as replacing weak authentication methods or closing access control gaps.
Additionally, delegated administration and role-based access controls (RBAC) streamline operations by assigning clear ownership and responsibilities. This not only supports privacy and least-privilege principles but also reduces the manual effort required to manage applications at scale. With its integration capabilities, an application fabric ensures organizations can quickly adapt to change, whether onboarding new applications during a merger or transitioning between identity providers.
By consolidating fragmented portfolios and applying consistent governance, an application fabric reduces risk exposure, enhances compliance, and boosts operational efficiency—all while supporting business agility. Whether mitigating risks from shadow IT or ensuring smoother post-merger integrations, the application fabric provides the tools organizations need to safeguard their operations in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
An application fabric’s effectiveness is amplified when integrated with identity orchestration. This integration dynamically enforces access and authentication policies, connecting identities in IDPs to the applications they access. Identity orchestration also bridges legacy systems with modern platforms, ensuring seamless interoperability and consistent governance.
Deploying An Application Fabric
Implementing an application fabric involves several strategic steps:
- Discover: Automated tools inventory applications on cloud platforms and IDPs, ensuring comprehensive visibility.
- Classify and Organize: Applications are categorized based on mission criticality and risk, with clear tags for governance.
- Manage and Govern: Policies are applied to maintain consistent access control, authentication strength, and ownership structures.
- Analyze and Adapt: Reporting tools monitor application health, assess compliance, and identify areas for improvement. Continuous discovery ensures changes in the application landscape are quickly addressed.
By integrating seamlessly with an identity fabric through orchestration, the application fabric ensures a comprehensive approach to identity-centric governance and risk management. It provides enterprises with the agility to adapt to business changes, the resilience to manage complex ecosystems, and the confidence to demonstrate compliance in a dynamic regulatory environment.
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Eric Olden, with his expertise as a CEO and co-author of the SAML SSO standard, would be an excellent addition to discussions about application fabrics and identity management in the Our Website Technology Council.
Implementing an application fabric requires automation tools for comprehensive discovery, classification, management, and continuous adaptation to ensure enterprise-wide application governance and risk management, as advocated by Eric Olden.
