There’s a lot of talk in enterprise circles about “future-proofing” applications, so they can evolve to meet changing business requirements. But future-proofing is more than a trendy term—it's a vital strategy. The key to creating adaptable, enduring apps lies not just in the code, but in their enabling and complementary infrastructure. Look no further than identity and access management (IAM).

According to Gartner’s recent Guide for Identity and Access Management, IAM is the cornerstone of a robust future-proofing strategy. The report also noted the growing complexity of maintaining long-term application flexibility and adaptability. For example, accepted best practices, vendor lock-ins, and other factors combine to obstruct future-proofing. According to the report, decisions made in the moment for the sake of expediency and efficiency can lead to a “tech debt” in the future.

For example, developers with a deadline will often hardcode functionality into an application without concern for the long-term implications of what they're doing. This approach can lead to software development kit (SDK) lock-ins and other vendor-specific constraints, which often tether applications to a specific service provider, especially in the realm of IAM. This prevents easy adoption of new capabilities, like passwordless authentication, and hinders support for emerging standards.

In addition, the application landscape is changing fast, and what was once the top-of-the-line security may not be so advanced next year, or even three months from now. Organizations can’t afford to get stuck with identity services that take so long to unwind that by the time they can make a switch to something newer, they are already out of date. 

The role of identity orchestration

Identity orchestration can be a potent framework for managing the challenges of future-proofing applications. It helps remove much of the complexity associated with managing IAM products, reduces the need for rewriting applications to support new capabilities, and makes security more efficient and up-to-date by allowing the flexibility to adopt new standards.

It tackles multiple challenges by enabling identity provider (IDP) autonomy, avoiding one-size-fits-all solutions that only work today and won’t adapt to the organization’s future needs. It embraces flexibility, customization, and resiliency to keep systems modern and able to bounce back from any disruption by supporting multiple IDPs.

Key challenges to overcome

Depending strictly on one IDP often leads to vendor lock-in, where all applications in use are tied to one service for identity authentication and management. But as the industry evolves and the vendor landscape changes with some merging and others going out of business, lock-in limits how well an application can adapt to new requirements and standards.

Most large enterprises have hundreds of applications with mix-and-match levels of security, user cases, and user bases. A New York-based finance group won’t have the same needs as a defense contractor in North Dakota, but they both want best-in-breed security.

Identity orchestration takes a crucial step in separating IAM from the core application logic. A modular approach that handles identity as a separate component can allow developers to more easily adapt to changing user types or authentication methods. This architecture also caters to a greater variety of user types and use cases by making it easier to integrate multiple types and sources of identity.  

In addition, application developers sometimes experience tunnel vision when catering to one user base or use case. An application may initially be designed only to be used by employees, but the organization might later want to make it accessible to external partners or customers. Forcing developers to figure out new ways to scale the app and connect new user types that were never anticipated when it was originally built. 

Taking a more platform-agnostic approach to identity orchestration can provide additional flexibility to support unanticipated future use cases and user types. This ensures the application can integrate new user groups, technologies, or authentication tools. For example, it can smooth the transition from password-based to passwordless authentication or incorporate biometric verification.

Finally, cloud services are often viewed as a cure-all for future-proofing. But they also bring their own constraints and new dependencies. For example, each cloud uses a proprietary identity system, and as companies grow, they tend to diversify to multi-cloud environments. Managing multiple cloud-based IDPs creates more complexity and produces another kind of vendor lock-in.

Future-proofing recommendations

To create applications that are resilient, adaptable, and future-proof using identity orchestration consider these best practices:

• Avoid reliance on a single IDP by integrating support for multiple identity providers.

• Implement IAM as a separate, modular component of your application.

• Adopt a platform-agnostic approach to identity orchestration that is not tied to one vendor’s platform.

• Avoid cloud constraints that come with standardizing identity on one cloud service provider.

Embracing these identity orchestration strategies will not only make applications more robust and flexible, but also enable them to dynamically adapt to future technology and business requirements.