IAM Explained: CIAM (Consumer IAM)

After a little break, being back from vacation, here is the next article in my series on #iam explained. This time, it is about #ciam - the solutions for Consumer IAM (or, as some call it, Customer IAM). I tend to the term Consumer IAM because that one is broader and includes users that are not customers (in the sense of a business relation involving payments).

CIAM is one of the solutions that emerged only about a decade ago. That doesn't mean that there wasn't any support for customers and consumers accessing applications. There was and is, in mainly two facets:

• Custom solutions such as eCommerce sites that have built-in capabilities for authentication, user registration etc.
• Access Management solutions that primarily focus on the authentication part of customer and consumer access

The lines between CIAM and Access Management are blurring. Some of the Access Management solutions provide rather powerful CIAM capabilities, while some of the CIAM solutions are expanding into B2B (partners etc.) and even B2E (employee) access.

CIAM itself has been facing some evolution since its introduction. On one hand, there is the extended focus beyond the "C identities" (consumers, customers, citizens). On the other hand, some of the solutions have converged more into CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) which manage the customer-related data and closely integrate with the LoB (Line of Business) applications. Again, the lines between CIAM and CDP solutions are blurring.

CIAM solutions commonly provide a range of core capabilities, including

• User registration flows
• Authentication, increasingly also supporting passwordless authentication and deliveirng #fido2 support
• Privacy & consent handling, either by built-in capabilities or integration to specialized platforms; some solutions support advanced capabilities such as family management to handle complex relationships between different but related users such as parents and their children
• Identity Verification capabilities; while some vendors provide built-in capabilities, many integrate with specialized solutions
• Analytics & Reporting

Some solutions also provide CDP features (as mentioned above), marketing automation capabilities (most integrate with specialized solutions), and other capabilities such as fraud reduction intelligence, i.e., the detection of potentially fraudulent activities and anomalies.

Integration to backend systems, specifically LoB applications such as ERP and CRM systems, is also essential for CIAM solutions. There are many other types of integrations that might be required, such as for loyalty cards or into payment systems.

Modern CIAM solutions also come with a comprehensive API that allows consumer-facing applications to utilize the capabilities of the CIAM solution. Some few CIAM solutions are API-centric, focusing on delivering APIs but not/lesser on own user interfaces.

The API support is essential for organizations that are building digital services and that want to rely on a central backend for the CIAM related services such as authentication or user registration.