What is Identity Orchestration?

What is Identity Orchestration?

Identity Orchestration refers to the process of coordinating and managing various identity-related tasks and workflows across multiple systems, applications, and environments. It involves automating and unifying complex identity processes to deliver seamless and secure user access experiences while enforcing identity governance and regulatory compliance.

Identity orchestration integrates disparate identity services (e.g., authentication, authorization, provisioning, auditing) into a cohesive framework, often using dynamic policies and real-time decision-making.

Why Identity Orchestration is Important

As organizations move more sensitive data, applications, and resources to cloud-hosted environments, legacy Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) systems struggle to manage new identity management complexities. As technology portfolios expand, the manual process upon which organizations have relied cannot meet the identity management and regulatory compliance demands they now face. Identity Orchestration is vital for organizations that must enforce IGA policies efficiently across a growing threat landscape. Identity Orchestration plays a critical role in meeting new identity and access management challenges. Here is where Identity Orchestration helps:

1. Zero Trust Model Implementation: Orchestrates identity verification and authentication at every access request, using continuous granular policies.
2. Unifies Access Hybrid Environments: Identity Orchestration bridges on-premises and cloud-based systems to provide seamless user access.
3. Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM): Identity Orchestration delivers personalized, secure experiences for customers across multiple channels and applications.
4. Mergers and Acquisitions: As organizations add new users, applications, and sensitive data from merged and acquired entities, Identity Orchestration quickly integrates disparate systems and enables consistent, efficient identity governance and administration.
5. Dynamic Workforce Management: As organizations add more employees, contractors, partners, and vendors, Identity Orchestration manages access with context-aware policies.

Key Components of Identity Orchestration

Workflow Automation

Automates identity lifecycle management functions such as user provisioning, role assignment, access approvals, and deprovisioning and ensures consistent enforcement of access control policies across different systems.

Integration Layer

Connects identity management tools and processes across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. For example, Identity Orchestration integrates Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and provisioning processes through a single platform.

Dynamic Access Management

Identity Orchestration uses real-time user context (e.g., location, device security, behavior patterns, etc.) to inform identity management decisions and enables adaptive authentication and authorization based on changing risk factors.

Policy Enforcement

Enforces consistent adherence to identity and access policies, such as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and attribute-based access control (ABAC) across an organization’s IT infrastructure.

Identity Federation and Trust Management

Orchestrates interactions between Identity Providers (IdPs) and Service Providers (SPs) in federated identity systems and manages trust relationships to ensure secure and efficient user authentication.

User Experience Optimization

Enables self-service user interactions to make it easier to unify login experiences and reduces friction during the authentication process.

Monitoring and Analytics

Tracks and analyzes identity-related activities to identify anomalies, detect threats, and support compliance audits.

How Identity Orchestration Works

1. A user attempts to access a resource (e.g., an application or service).
2. The Identity Orchestration platform gathers context, such as the user’s identity, roles, attributes, and environmental factors.
3. The platform evaluates access policies, applying rules such as MFA triggers, conditional access, or step-up authentication.
4. The platform integrates with various identity services (e.g., authentication providers, directories, governance tools) to fulfill the request.
5. Based on the context and policies, the platform grants or denies access and logs the event.

Benefits of Identity Orchestration

Enhanced Security

The centralized control that Identity Orchestration provides reduces inconsistencies and vulnerabilities in identity management processes. As new applications and users are onboarded, Identity Orchestration provides adaptive and dynamic access decisions to mitigate risks from evolving threats.

Grants Users Appropriate Access More Easily

Identity Orchestration simplifies login workflows and reduces friction through Single Sign-on (SSO) and adaptive authentication.

Improved Operational Efficiency

Identity Orchestration automates repetitive tasks like provisioning and deprovisioning, reducing the risk of human error and freeing up IT resources.

Compliance and Governance

Ensures consistent policy enforcement and provides auditable logs for regulatory requirements.

Scalability of Identity Governance Policies

Identity Orchestration integrates diverse IAM tools to support identity management in complex on-premises, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments.

Where to Learn More and Get Help

Identity Orchestration is essential to the success of a SaaS-based IGA solution because it ensures seamless user experiences, consistent security, and efficient management in increasingly complex IT environments.

Omada Identity Cloud is a comprehensive SaaS-based IGA solution that addresses the evolving challenges of identity management in modern enterprises. By offering robust identity governance, seamless connectivity, enhanced security, and intelligent automation, Omada Identity Cloud empowers organizations to not only meet compliance requirements but also improve cost efficiency and make informed decisions to mitigate identity risks effectively.