Introducing the Identity Maturity Framework

Today’s users are accustomed to living and working online, and they expect a secure, effortless experience every time they access your platform. Seamless authentication is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a requirement for success. And since companies are building more custom applications, users need fast, secure access across multiple platforms and devices. Identity touches every aspect of your business, so managing identity is more complex and more critical than ever before.

In response, organizations are exploring the value of third-party identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) platforms like Auth0. These solutions offer a centralized source of truth for authentication, authorization, and customer insight.

What Is Identity Maturity?

Identity maturity is a way of thinking about the efficacy of your existing identity solution and its capacity to handle new business requirements and customer demands as you grow and scale. Achieving identity maturity involves understanding what a fully functional, centralized authentication solution looks like. Evaluating your current state, creating a plan to improve your identity infrastructure, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement are also key to reaching identity maturity.

As an IDaaS provider, Auth0 works with organizations of all sizes in a diverse array of industries to tackle identity challenges. In doing so, we’ve learned a huge amount about the identity models that work for particular business needs and goals.

In fact, we’ve consolidated our expertise and our customers’ knowledge and experiences into a solution we call the Auth0 Identity Maturity Framework (IMF): a collection of tools, tactics, and expert input that will help you understand what’s working about your identity solution and what needs to change.

Pain Points in Managing Identity

Across the organizations we’ve worked with, we’ve noted some common areas of pain that teams encounter as they begin retooling their identity infrastructure to deliver the convenience, privacy, and security their users want. Here are the most common pain points we’ve observed:

• Disconnected identity priorities: Plenty of organizations lack a holistic identity or security strategy across all applications and business units. Inflexible legacy systems and siloed teams can lead to inconsistencies in how you manage identity and security in your environments.
• Identity distracts from core business operations: An investment in identity is an investment in revenue generation — but too often, companies see identity only as a cost center. Identity is inherently complex, and it takes extensive time and effort to overcome identity challenges. Companies tend to see these efforts as “stolen” from their core business functions.
• Limited expertise in managing identity: Identity is a complex and continually evolving force, and most companies aren’t experts. And they shouldn’t have to be. IDaaS companies like Auth0 exist, so you don’t have to reinvent the identity wheel when industry-led best practices, standards, and tools are already in place.

Security and CX aren’t mutually exclusive

Many organizations believe — understandably but erroneously — that they have no choice but to make a tradeoff between a strong security posture and a stellar customer experience. These companies might be concerned that:

• Implementing an additional security measure like multi-factor authentication (MFA) could introduce enough friction to frustrate users
• Adding security features could hinder fast release cycles
• Security enhancements will impede platform scalability

The reality is that working toward identity maturity makes it possible to maintain robust security standards, accelerate time-to-value, and achieve stable scalability — all while delivering the fast, convenient experience customers demand.

What Is Auth0’s Identity Maturity Framework, and How Can It Help?

The Auth0 Identity Maturity Framework (IMF) combines Auth0’s deep experience managing identity with our customers’ acquired knowledge. In partnership with many of our clients, we developed this framework to:

• Give you the context you need to understand your current maturity level
• Identify the specific steps you should take to mature your identity infrastructure
• Help you visualize and quantify your progress toward identity maturity

Think of the IMF as a customized identity plan that will help you shift and scale to meet emerging business needs and evolving customer demands.

Phases of the Identity Maturity Framework

The IMF consists of four phases in your identity journey. Auth0 works in partnership with you through each phase, so you’re fully supported with expert advice and relevant resources at every step. Here are the four phases of the IMF:

1. Understand Proof of Value: Learn what our benchmark for great identity management looks like, and explore how other organizations have gotten there.
2. Discover Your Current State: We’ll capture and document your identity solution in action to assess what’s working and what’s missing.
3. Create a Plan to Improve Identity Management: We’ll collaborate with you on a specific plan to enable great identity management throughout your organization.
4. Commit to Continuous Improvement: As you hit your milestones, we’ll evaluate how your new identity capabilities are delivering value and suggest specific actions you can take to continue improving.

What Do I Do Next?

If the challenges we’ve described sound familiar, please reach out to schedule an IMF consultation. After an initial conversation to make sure your organization is a good fit for the plan, we’ll proceed with the four-phase framework outlined above.

You can also download our solutions brief, where we detail the IMF journey of an Auth0 customer who needed to manage 180 million unique, unverified users across 36 international markets — within a year, and without any existing user being forced to reset their password. That was a big ask, but the IMF unlocks big benefits. To learn more about specific milestones and outcomes, read the brief.