tag: iam
IAM
Identity and access management as a discipline: the building blocks, the platforms and how the pieces connect.
Articles
- General
How to Choose an Identity Integration Partner
What to look for when you hire outside help for an IAM or API security project: relevant experience, standards depth, handover, references and red flags.
- Authorization
XACML With OpenID Connect, SAML, OAuth and SCIM: Who Does What
Five identity standards, five jobs: SAML and OIDC authenticate, OAuth delegates API access, SCIM provisions accounts and XACML evaluates authorization policies.
- Cloud computing
Extending Your IAM to Cloud Apps: SSO, Provisioning, Reviews
A practical plan to bring SaaS apps under your identity program: federate sign-in, automate provisioning with SCIM, review access and handle the apps that resist.
- Events & community
Identity Conferences Worth Following, and How to Get Value
The identity and access management events that shape the field, from Identiverse and EIC to IIW and IETF meetings, and how to pick the right one for your team.
- Federation
Federation and Entitlement Management: How They Fit Together
Federation tells an app who the user is; entitlement management decides what they may do. How SAML, OIDC, SCIM and policy engines divide the work.
Guides
- IAM building block
Authentication: proving who someone is
How authentication works in 2026: knowledge, possession and inherence factors, phishing-resistant MFA, passkeys, NIST assurance levels and service authentication.
- IAM building block
Authorization: deciding what is allowed
How authorization works: role-based and attribute-based access control, XACML's PDP and PEP, policy-as-code engines, OAuth scopes, and where checks belong.
- Topic guide
Cloud security through identity
Identity-centered cloud security: shared responsibility, SSO and SCIM for SaaS, least privilege in IaaS, workload identities, hybrid connections and logging.
- Platform category
Entitlement management
What entitlement management systems do: inventory permissions, govern grants and reviews, and enforce fine-grained authorization with policy engines.
- Guides
IAM building blocks
The five building blocks of identity and access management explained: authentication, authorization, federation, provisioning and audit, with standards for each.
- IAM building block
Audit: knowing who did what
What identity audit covers: sign-in and admin logs, access reviews and certification, separation of duties, retention, and the evidence auditors ask for.
- IAM building block
What is identity federation?
How identity federation works: identity providers and relying parties, SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect trust, metadata, certificates and common pitfalls.
- Platform category
Identity management systems
What identity management systems cover: identity governance and administration, directories, lifecycle automation, reviews, and how to evaluate them.
- Topic guide
Information security for identity systems
How to protect identity infrastructure itself: signing keys, TLS, admin access, patching, secrets, logging and incident response for IdPs and authorization servers.
- Platform category
Jump-start: choosing an IAM platform
A step-by-step method for choosing an IAM platform: scenarios, deployment model, standards support, proof of concept and planning your exit.
- Product overview
PingOne overview
What PingOne is: Ping Identity's identity-as-a-service platform for SSO, MFA, risk and orchestration, including the Advanced Identity Cloud.
- IAM building block
Provisioning and SCIM
How user provisioning works: joiner, mover and leaver processes, SCIM 2.0 requests, connectors, just-in-time provisioning and reliable deprovisioning.