Top IAM Priorities for 2025: Addressing Multi-Cloud Identity Management Challenges

As we move toward 2025, the adoption of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud is continuing to accelerate. While the benefits are manifold, it also means that organizations have significant challenges when securely integrating hybrid and cloud identity systems.

Just some of these challenges identity and access management (IAM) leaders are grappling with include high costs related to technical debt, a pronounced talent gap, and vendor lock-in. In 2025 it will be critical to have robust identity management policies in place.

Determining the State of Multi-Cloud Identity Today

The IAM industry needs a clear picture of the current state of multi-cloud identity management. With this understanding, we can then determine what to prioritize for the coming year. To bring this picture into focus, Strata Identity commissioned CSA to develop a new survey report.

CSA conducted the survey online in the summer of 2024. We received a total of 950 responses from IT and security professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds. The primary objectives of the survey were to gain a deeper understanding of:

• The state of identity architecture in the enterprise
• Identity resiliency plans
• Gaps in identity analytics capabilities
• Current approaches to identity governance for applications
  

"The report assesses the current landscape and offers a strategic roadmap for IAM leaders aiming to build a more secure identity environment."

1. Close Visibility Gaps

Substantial visibility gaps exist that hinder effective identity management. More than 1/3 of organizations are not satisfied with their ability to monitor their IAM environments.

Not being able to see and manage all aspects of identity leads to serious risks, such as unauthorized access and hard-to-diagnose outages and breaches. To address this, organizations must ensure they have the right visibility tools, architecture, and processes in place. Building an identity fabric with orchestration provides real-time insights into user behaviors and application events. It also means having consistent access policies across all platforms.

2. Break Free from Tech Debt

As enterprises modernize their identity systems, they face technical debt, complexity, and resource constraints. Over half (54%) of the organizations cite tech debt as their top hurdle when modernizing IAM. Another 45% grapple with data migration and integrity risks. Difficulties in securing stakeholder buy-in makes things even worse, as noted by 41% of respondents.

We also asked about the barriers organizations face when deploying advanced authentication and authorization for their applications. Respondents identified several key issues. The most common response was that non-standard, legacy applications don't work with modern identity protocols (71%). This further highlights the issue of tech debt.

Organizations need to modernize legacy systems and automate as many IAM processes as possible. Modernizing IAM with solutions like identity orchestration can:

• Streamline the management of disparate identity systems
• Facilitate the integration of new technologies
• Help automate key processes

3. Strengthen Identity Infrastructure

Organizations face many challenges when trying to achieve true identity resilience. These challenges are rooted in:

• The complexity of IAM environments
• Outdated technology
• Lack of resources

A significant 60% of respondents cite the complexity of their IAM environments as a major hurdle. Another 51% struggle with the burden of outdated technology and tech debt. Making these issues worse is the fact that 40% of organizations just don't have the resources they need.

This shortage of resources forces organizations into a reactive security posture. They focus on fixing immediate issues but can't address future threats.

Using an identity fabric with orchestration can keep redundant identity services distributed and resilient across multiple environments. Additionally, tools that offer identity provider (IDP) health checks and simulated downtime exercises can further strengthen resilience. These tools can identify weaknesses and prepare organizations for future disruptions.

4. Proactively Manage Multi-IDPs

Organizations try to keep security from becoming a bottleneck that stifles innovation and mars the user experience. However, modernizing identity security systems is no small feat. Over half (65%) of organizations said that managing access controls is their biggest challenge with multi-IDP identity management.

Organizations should focus on addressing current issues while preparing for future threats at the same time. Identity orchestration can be a game-changer in this regard.

5. Use Robust Failover Strategies

Most organizations have not fully implemented the identity management measures that they know they should. Only 38% of organizations report having fully implemented measures to ensure continuous availability of identity services. A troubling 6% of organizations admit to having nothing in place at all

We also asked respondents about their confidence in their ability to withstand and recover from identity outages. Tellingly, 52% of respondents feel only moderately confident—or worse.

Organizations must implement robust failover strategies that automatically switch to secondary IDPs when needed. They should ensure that identity services remain "always on" by leveraging software that supports failover to a secondary IDP. This way, planned maintenance or unplanned outages will not be as much of an issue.

6. Invest in Key Solutions

The importance of robust identity management has never been clearer. Despite economic pressures, only 11% of organizations are considering reducing their identity management budgets next year.

Organizations plan to invest in key areas that directly address the challenges highlighted in earlier findings. Improving identity analytics and visibility is a top priority for 53% of organizations. Another 50% also want to focus on modernizing legacy systems.

Investing in modern solutions allows organizations to ensure that their IAM strategies:

1. Address immediate security concerns, and
2. Align with broader business goals

Conclusion

By taking decisive, practical actions based on the strategies listed above, IAM teams can greatly improve their identity postures. They can even use these strategies to move beyond their traditional roles. They can become key innovators within the organization, contributing directly to business growth.

Download the State of Multi-Cloud Identity Survey Report for free to get a full breakdown of the survey results.