Access Management , Global Compliance , Governance & Risk Management
The Path to Modern IAM
IBM's Patrick Wardrop on Strategies for Upgrading Enterprise AccessThe technology and operating models for identity and access management have evolved with time, but the way many enterprises approach IAM has not. How can security leaders modernize their IAM strategy in this era of unprecedented complexity? Patrick Wardrop of IBM Security shares insights.
Wardrop, the chief architect of IAM for IBM Security, has worked in this space for nearly 20 years, and he has seen a dramatic evolution.
"When IAM first started to become a buzzword at companies 20 years ago, people were really focused on just basic user lifecycle management," Wardrop says. But today, many enterprises use identity as the centerpiece of their business, and that business is done increasingly in the cloud. "In this concept of digital transformation, companies want their employees to have easy access to applications [in the cloud] to be more productive ... and identity has become the heart of this transformation strategy, rather than the barrier."
In an interview about the path to modern IAM, Wardrop discusses:
- The evolving IAM challenges;
- Why cloud applications are an IAM game-changer;
- How IBM is helping organizations modernize their IAM strategies.
Wardrop is a senior technical staff member at IBM. He is the chief architect for the identity and access management portfolio of offerings at IBM. He has 20 years' experience in enterprise software development and security solutions architecture for a number of industry verticals. He has more than 20 US issued patents and more than 40 world-wide issued patents.