IAM vs. CIAM: Which Solution is Right For You?

Traditional identity management is no longer enough to serve consumers. This should really go without saying. After all, internal management systems were originally built to manage employee identities, and their expectations of a good user experience does not necessarily align with customer expectations.

It also doesn’t help that the needs of consumers are growing with every passing year, and internal identity management systems are not built to keep up.

For example, online users now expect a smooth and secure customer experience across multiple devices and platforms, often stitched together with federated single sign-on. But internal identity management systems will always struggle to meet this requirement.

Identity and access management (IAM) solutions are traditionally used to streamline employee provisioning, manage access rights, assist in compliance reporting, automate approval workflows, fuel authentication and authorization, and for numerous other security-relevant functions.

But out of convenience, businesses try to adopt this technology to manage customer identities as well. Unfortunately, internal identity management systems just don’t have the right capabilities to manage and secure the hundreds of millions of users on consumer-facing platforms.

This is where customer IAM solutions come in. These solutions have been built to specifically handle the requirements for customer authentication, scalability, privacy and data regulations, the user experience, as well as integration. Our CIAM Compass knowledge portal breaks each of these requirements down in more detail.

In comparison to internal management, a customer identity and access management(CIAM) solution improves the customer experience, reduces security risks, shrinks costs, and increases the availability of applications. If you are evaluating vendors, our CIAM providers directory compares the leading options side by side.

In this infographic, we compare the following features of both an IAM and CIAM solution:

• Authentication
• Scalability
• Privacy and data regulations
• User experience
• Integrations

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the core difference between IAM and CIAM?

IAM is built to manage employee identities: provisioning accounts, controlling access rights, supporting compliance reporting, and automating approval workflows for a relatively small, known workforce. CIAM is built to manage customer identities: authenticating hundreds of millions of consumer-facing users while handling scalability, privacy and data regulations, user experience, and integrations at a scale internal systems were never designed for.

Can an IAM system be used to manage customer identities?

Technically businesses can stretch an internal IAM system to cover customers, but it is not what the system was built for. Internal identity management tools lack the capabilities to securely manage and scale to the volume of users found on consumer-facing platforms, which is exactly the gap CIAM solutions are designed to fill.

When should a business choose IAM over CIAM?

Choose IAM when the goal is managing internal, employee-facing identities such as provisioning, access rights, compliance reporting, and authentication and authorization for staff. IAM is the right fit for workforce identity, not for authenticating a large external customer base.

When should a business choose CIAM over IAM?

Choose CIAM when the goal is managing customer identities at scale, including customer authentication, privacy and data regulation compliance, a smooth user experience, and integrations across the platforms customers actually use. CIAM improves the customer experience, reduces security risks, shrinks costs, and increases application availability compared to forcing an internal system to serve that role.

What features should you compare when choosing between IAM and CIAM?

The article compares both solutions across five features: authentication, scalability, privacy and data regulations, user experience, and integrations. Weighing a solution against all five, rather than authentication alone, is what determines whether IAM or CIAM is the right fit.