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As your organization undergoes its digital transformation, you'll want to include your identity and access management (IAM) systems among the systems that get migrated to the cloud. However, there are certain challenges that you'll need to consider before, during and after your cloud migration.

For most organizations, there are clear benefits in moving IAM systems to the cloud. Not only should total cost of ownership be reduced as staffers spend less time on maintaining data-center infrastructure, but identity-based applications should work more smoothly for staffers and customers alike.

"There's an increased demand in the customer-identity use case, i.e., customers who can quickly log in and sign out of smooth experiences as they can on Netflix or Amazon," said Yev Koup, a senior product marketing manager at Ping Identity. "Other companies want as smooth and convenient an experience for their own customers."

Koup also sees a trend toward greater demand for smooth and easy integration in the IT space, where IAM systems must work well with other applications and technologies.

"There's invisible networking that has to exist, such as with Microsoft Active Directory," he told us. "We're also seeing demand for increased orchestration capabilities."

That said, should you move your IAM systems to the cloud? There are several issues to consider before you even decide to begin your cloud migration.

"Financial institutions often don't want their data happening in the cloud," Koup said. "They want to be first rescuers if something goes wrong, and they have teams that are very capable of doing this. Governments also often want to keep things on-premises."

"Usually for larger organizations, this is a big project," Koup told us. "They need a process and a migration path and plan. Companies like Ping can help. Partially it's a fear of the unknown it helps to get a partner involved."

Once your company has weighed all those factors and decided to migrate its IAM systems to the cloud, then there are other decisions to make before the migration begins.

"Security's generally a little bit higher when you're in the cloud, even though you are relying on a third-party vendor," said Koup. "There are risks, but the risks of being in the cloud are lower than if you have to manage the configuration on your own premises."

"The nice thing about orchestration is that as things continue to change for the business, you can update back-end components a lot quicker and on the fly," Koup told us, adding that Ping's own Da Vinci orchestration software "lets you preview and see end-user experience before you deploy."

After the migration process begins, do it the right way:

"Work closely with your identity or cloud providers," said Koup. "Phase in applications slowly and work with the vendor's professional services team. It costs more to do it this way, but it will be a smoother process."

There are also challenges that may not present themselves until after the IAM cloud migration is complete. You need to prepare yourself for the possibility that:

Despite all these potential pitfalls, Ping Identity's Koup thinks it's well worth moving IAM systems to the cloud.

"You'll get greater scalability and resiliency," he told us. "There will be a lot less behind-the-scenes work to integrate new functions and features, which will improve your total cost of ownership. You may pay higher licensing fees [for your IAM solution], but you'll have less expenditure on manpower or infrastructure or scaling."

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Top identity and access trends and challenges when moving to the cloud - SC Media