Survey Highlights

Focus on Authorization A standout finding from this year’s survey is the significant attention towards authorization. Nearly 28% of respondents identified it as a top priority within their organizations, and 22% expressed a keen interest in delving deeper into this area. This focus is likely stimulated by notable advancements in authorization technologies, such as AWS’s Cedar and OpenID Foundation’s AuthZen Working Group. The demand for dynamic, near real-time access management is pushing the continuous evolution of standards and technologies in authorization, reflecting its critical role in today’s security landscape.

The Broader Business Impact Despite the technological focus, digital identity management continues to be predominantly viewed through a cybersecurity lens. However, the survey highlights a persistent gap between the technological interest of practitioners and the organizational prioritization, especially in areas like verifiable credentials and decentralized identities. This gap indicates a significant opportunity for organizations to align their identity management strategies more closely with business objectives such as customer acquisition and retention.

Industry Demographics and Future Challenges The survey also sheds light on the demographic composition of the identity management field. Most respondents have over six years of experience, pointing to a matured industry. However, this maturity brings challenges; there is a noticeable trend towards hiring senior-level professionals, which could lead to a skills and experience gap as current leaders begin to retire. This demographic trend emphasizes the need for strategic changes in hiring and training to prepare the next generation of IAM professionals.

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The IDPro® Skills, Programs & Diversity Survey serves as an essential tool for the digital identity management industry, offering valuable insights that can help shape the future of identity strategies and technologies. As we look forward to the continued evolution of this field, it is clear that both challenges and opportunities lie ahead.

Want to see the full report? You can download it here!

The post The State of the Digital Identity Profession: Insights from the 7th Annual IDPro® Skills, Programs & Diversity Survey appeared first on IDPro.

This is the sixth annual installment of the digital identity industry survey conducted by IDPro and made possible thanks to our members and participants. IDPro’s annual surveys are a deep dive into the identity and access management industry. We couldn’t create this without you.

Attracting nearly 30% more respondents than last year, the 2023 survey is set against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, the ongoing after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and significant geo-political challenges. The role that digital identity technologies, processes, and programs—and associated laws and regulations—play continues to grow as our reliance on the Internet deepens.  Our digital world simply cannot operate without digital identity: digital identity is critical infrastructure for the internet. 

Survey Highlights

Within this context, through the 2023 skills survey, IDPro has established the following:

• The industry is growing rapidly — reflected both in practitioner demographics and in a reported need for continuing professional development, particularly amongst the longest-serving practitioners—with implications for individual career development and for enterprise talent acquisition and management programs.
• Enterprises have yet to fully recognize the value of their digital identity programs in enabling customers (both internal and external), versus managing and protecting systems, evidenced by an ongoing focus on technologies like (multi-factor) authentication and authorization, coupled with a relatively lack of interest in enabling technologies like CIAM and the personal identity technologies including self-sovereign identity (“SSI”), verifiable credentials (“VCs”), and digital wallets.
• Enterprises will increasingly turn their attention to authorization deployments; and practitioners should be well-positioned to support these initiatives, unless technological approaches evolve significantly (which they may).
• In common with many other sectors, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies are likely to have a significant impact on the digital identity industry and digital identity practitioners.  Risks and opportunities will emerge; but it is still too soon to draw any firm conclusions about specifics.
• There is less practitioner interest in standards development, and an increased focus on combining existing standards and technologies to solve business problems.  To some extent this reflects the greater reach of the survey, but it may also indicate a phasic maturity within the industry: with a few notable exceptions, many of the technical problems are seen as ‘solved’, if not yet fully realized.  It is unlikely, however, that this will remain the case.

There is so much more to learn from the survey, and you are welcome to download a copy here.

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