Gartner Peer Insights on Identity Data Management: Roadblock or Business Enabler?

Here at Radiant Logic, we understand how identity complexity—including disparate data sources, dozens of identities for every single user, and different identity demands from each application—adversely affects security, slowing roll-outs and stopping progress across a host of critical identity-driven initiatives. But we wanted to hear from the folks who deal with these complexities daily, to gain a deeper understanding of what’s working and what keeps them up at night.

We partnered with Gartner Peer Insights to see how IAM leaders are looking at identity management these days. Together, we surveyed 100+ IT and information security experts involved in purchasing identity-related projects. Our goal was to better understand how they address today’s identity management challenges. The results are in, and here’s a look at what we discovered. (Want to skip the post and go straight to the survey? We got you: Read the Survey)

Identity Management is Critical to Stopping Identity-Related Breaches 

Disparate identities are directly responsible for identity-related breaches as IT leaders struggle to address identity sprawl. 84% of the organizations surveyed reported an identity-related breach, and 67% experienced one in the last year. The problem with disparate identities is they only get worse with time. Every new user, every user that changes status—along with each new application—makes the problem exponentially worse. 60% of organizations stated they have over 21 disparate identities per user, with 34% reporting 21-30 disparate identities.

Critical Yes, but the Business has Mixed Feelings

We asked our identity experts how the business views identity management and uncovered a familiar tension between identity teams and the broader business: while more than half of all respondents rated identity management as vitally important, 61% of respondents reported that their business sees identity management as “too time-intensive and costly to manage on an on-going basis.” (We can help with that: learn how!)

But we also saw some encouraging signs in the business side’s understanding of the importance of identity management, with more than half (58%) of respondents agreeing that identity management plays a vital role in effectively managing hybrid infrastructures and nearly half (47%) saying it impacts the ability to make informed security and business decisions. (Perhaps they’ve been attending our webinars or reading the blog?)

Pitting Employee Satisfaction against IT Spend

Today’s IT and InfoSec leaders must balance employee frustration and productivity challenges (46% of respondents) with ongoing budget concerns due to a lack of identity-related allocations (71% of respondents). Not being able to support business growth due to outdated systems and the fear of not being able to protect the organization from security threats were each identified by around a third of respondents, as well.

The good news is that 28% of our identity execs have good visibility into their systems, and they’re able to manage identities across their on-prem and cloud IT infrastructures. But for more than two-thirds of respondents, identity sprawl is a known issue that they’re not sure how to address. (Here’s a hint, just saying…) 

The Right Approach to Implementing Your Identity Data Management Strategy

RadiantOne delivers the capabilities needed to connect disparate identity data sources to make Identity Data a reusable resource. With RadiantOne, businesses can integrate IAM, IGA, or other identity-consuming apps with any identity data source to create a unified identity data management strategy. A strategy that turns identity data into a business enabler addressing the complexity, cost, and security issues facing many organizations today, as clearly shown in the Gartner Peer Insights survey.

Check Out the Full “Gartner Peer Insights” Survey 

Dive deeper into the data and explore the responses to hot button topics, such as identity-related breaches and intelligence initiatives. Learn how Identity Data Management can be a business and security roadblock if it’s not implemented correctly, but becomes a true business enabler when you dial in your underlying identity data. We’d love to talk you through it, so contact us.

Check out the survey now!