Enterprise Identity Services

A few months ago, I generated this view of the enterprise identity services landscape. The main goal of identity and access management solutions within an enterprise is to manage users' and applications' access and interactions with corporate assets.

There are a number of service layers that comprise the overall identity infrastructure that enable, restrict and audit this access. Each layer may be comprised of multiple technologies. As I've written in the past, Identity solutions will be implemented as services as we move into the future. Each layer should be built on open protocols that facilitate easy communication across layers. Companies should store and manage data in whatever format they're most comfortable. And employees should be empowered to perform their job functions without technical restrictions.

The layers of enterprise Identity Services as I see them are:

• Access and Policy Services
• User Services
• Identity Data Services
• Data Storage Services

Note: updated 7/25 with some minor enhancements