Understanding Identity and Access Management Trends in 2026
In today's heterogeneous and dispersed technology and work environments, Identity and Access Management (IAM) has become a crucial system for organisations. IAM is a system that manages who has access to which devices, applications, networks, and files.
The primary purpose of IAM is to ensure the right people have access to the right resources at the right time for the right reasons. This system includes capturing and recording user login events, visibility of the user identity database, and management of assigning and removing user access privileges.
Organisations, such as those working with SailPoint, have implemented IAM in recent years to address concrete pain points. These include failed compliance audits due to excessive access rights, technical issues causing user frustration, and overburdened helpdesks with password resets. The key motives behind IAM implementation are enhancing risk management, improving access controls under “Zero Trust” principles, and strengthening cybersecurity strategies through modern Identity Governance and Administration solutions.
Zero Trust is a cybersecurity framework that utilises IAM to a high degree, verifying and authorising every device or individual trying to access a private network. IAM involves defining and managing roles and access privileges of individual entities on a network, including users and devices.
In addition, IAM provides benefits such as better security, improved user experience and productivity, better business outcomes, and more visibility in a remote, mobile, and cloud work environment. The pandemic has made identity a growing issue and priority, as more businesses have remote users and external users have increasing access to internal systems.
IAM also includes a set of processes, technologies, and policies that let an organisation manage digital identities. System administrators can manage and restrict user access, as well as monitor changes in privileges. Access management refers to the technologies and processes for controlling and monitoring network access, featuring authorisation, authentication, and trust auditing.
Privileged account management refers to managing and auditing accounts and data access based on user privilege. Contextual information in IAM might include geography or time of day. Risk-based authentication refers to contextual assessments when a user attempts to log in, such as IP address or network. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) verifies a user's identity with requirements for multiple credentials.
Federated identity management is a process of sharing authentication between trusted businesses. IAM includes verification and authentication of individuals based on a combination of roles and contextual information. The principle of least privilege access means that every user or device in a network can access only the absolute bare minimum of what they need to do their jobs and nothing else.
In conclusion, IAM plays a vital role in today's digital landscape, providing organisations with the tools they need to manage their digital identities effectively, secure their networks, and ensure the right people have access to the right resources at the right time.
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