As an important emerging Tech Trend for 2016, new age cloud-enabled technologies will continue to push the envelope, while traditional solutions may keep their footing in the fast converting market place. Internet-of-things (IoT) devices, mobile apps and complex networks will keep the tech security space evolving – with SSO expanding its domain to IoT devices, Identity and Access Management (IAM) modules for apps and more layers of IAM and Privilege Account Management (PAM) for extra level of security. Also, keeping an eye on the latest Government policies on cyber security will be the need of the hour.

Over the years, IAM has emerged as a stand-alone, niche technical subject within IT Security. Given the diversity and specialization associated with the field of IAM, we had a discussion with IAM experts at Avancer. In our interaction, we found that these are the top IAM-related trends to look out for in 2016:

1. Cyber security has become the religion, equally for government and businesses. More regulations might be on the way for businesses in the near future. Companies are now bracing themselves to cyber security regulation, with governments globally introducing rules for organizations to build fool proof IT environment. As any breach in IT systems tend to affects a large information base and huge reputation loss, the government and business will together work more closely towards safeguarding cyber world. Market research organization, Research and Markets outline that every year, around 400 new regulatory policies related to cyber security are issued in the Government. Further detailing of existing regulations by the Government is expected to come out in 2016.
2. Cloud IAM to spread towards provisioning capabilities. In the year 2015, we saw Cloud Access Management Solutions touching the maturity point. The next big thing is achieving deep provisioning capabilities on cloud. With cloud-based models gaining acceptance, identity and access management will also get a step-up, especially IDaaS for cloud may witness more acceptance as a secure platform with bi-directional provisioning capabilities between cloud and on premise solutions, cloud based access governance and, mobile based certifications etc.
3. Spreading of IDM systems on on-premise as well as cloud. Introduction of IDaaS will not kill the good old On-Premise IAM. Cloud, which is making inroads into smaller and larger enterprises, is here to grow. However, as On-premise provides various strategic IT processes and have been an integral part of the IT environment of organizations for long, it might not become feasible for many companies to migrate from On-premise to cloud. Thus both, On-premise and cloud may continue to evolve and co-exist.
4. Cloud will enable greater utilisation of IAM products by small enterprises. Cloud IAM will re-define the traditional IT security landscape. Cloud IAM market is expected to witness a tremendous growth in the coming years. As per ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global cloud IAM market might witness growth from USD 1,089.3 million in the year 2015 to USD 3,424.5 million by the year 2020 . This would mean that the segment would rise at a CAGR of 25.7% for the above mentioned period. The change will be primarily driven by the way businesses will be conducted – focusing on automation and agile work environment, while adhering to altering regulations.
5. Safeguarding and securing super users through PAM. As requirements for cloud-based applications and cloud server will increase, organizations have become very cognizant about access management and security around privileged/root/super user access to these servers. Privilege users are the weak link when it comes to securing sensitive information. PAM brings new layer of security to the IT System by safeguarding, monitoring and recording activities super users. Adaption of cloud server monitoring PAM modules to maintain higher security levels will help cloud-based IT architectures to gain ground in the coming year.
6. Managing of identity through secure user identity management and access governance will enhance. With a lot of devices now being controlled over the Internet, SSO-enabled IoT devices would be the next step forward. As per Gartner, nearly 21 billion connected devices would be available by the year 2020. Thus, higher number of devices would be fighting against spyware, malware, Trojans and worms. With this, in organizations, employees as well as leaders would be looking at accessing data from various networks. The increase in data and device complexity, the need for identity management, security, API access as well as access to stored data would surge higher. Organizations might be moving to enforce user access to data by using apps from any device by extending their identity management systems’ capabilities. This could be done by authorizing third-party applications for accessing the resources. Working with centrally managed API gateway which is able to provide Single Sign-On (SSO) would make it easy for users. With more devices being used, SSO-enabled IoT devices might be widely adopted in 2016.
7. Businesses will stay agile by adding more layers of IAM into their IT infrastructure. It is expected that this would also include adoption of PAM, enabling interaction within or between apps as well as IAM platforms through adoption of connectors. Preventing breaches and insider attacks will be major drivers for taking up privileged access management (PAM) solutions. With this, integration of identity-management frameworks at API level will ensure eliminating human errors. This would enable robust cloud-security foundation. In this app-driven world, IAM modules will see more implementation for mobile devices and mobile apps as well.

In a nutshell, 2016 is expected to witness more of maturing of existing technology and strengthening of cyber-security policies, helping organizations and government save billions of dollars, while providing seamless and secure experience to users.