Once again this year, it-sa 2018 lived up to its reputation as Europe's largest IT security trade fair. According to the organizer, nearly 700 vendors from 27 countries were represented at the exhibition center in Nuremberg, and a new record of over 14,000 visitors shows that the event's potential is far from exhausted. As also noted on the it-sa website, the mood among long-time exhibitors was excellent. Everyone was thrilled about it-sa's development into a central IT security platform.

For us as Identity & Access Management specialists, it-sa was – as every year – the event we had been eagerly looking forward to. We once again traveled to Nuremberg with great anticipation to gain an overview of the latest IT security developments. As always, our goal was to identify which trends vendors are currently seeing in the field of Identity & Access Management and which IAM topics topped the agenda for visitors.

To get straight to the point: our expectations were exceeded once again this year. In addition to exciting conversations with IAM vendors, we also met many clients, partners, and friends and had the opportunity to exchange ideas about their current IAM topics.

At the Micro Focus Booth

One of our first stops upon arrival was, of course, the booth of our partner Micro Focus, which once again had its own stand this year. Following last year’s merger with HP’s software division, the joint IT security portfolio was presented there. In addition to the classic Micro Focus NetIQ products such as NetIQ Identity Manager, Access Manager, or Identity Governance, visitors were also able to learn more about newly added solutions like ArcSight, Fortify, and Voltage Secure Data.

When we arrived at the Micro Focus booth, we were completely surprised by the massive influx of visitors. Many customers and prospects came to explore the new IT security portfolio. Naturally, we also wanted to speak with our contacts at Micro Focus about various IAM topics and hear firsthand about all the updates to the Identity & Access Management products. Later in the afternoon, when the crowd had thinned, we had plenty of time for this.

Hot Topic: Identity & Access Management

Below is a summary of the key insights we gained from our discussions with Micro Focus, other IAM vendors, customers, partners, and friends:

• From both vendor and customer perspectives, Identity & Access Management continues to be one of the top priorities in IT security and will remain so for years to come.
• Most large enterprises have implemented Identity Management (IDM) solutions for several years. However, these IDM solutions often started with limited functionality and are now gradually being extended, for example with the introduction of business role models.
• In the midmarket, many companies are still searching for the right Identity Management solution. There is growing interest in cloud-based IDM-as-a-Service offerings, mainly due to the expected cost advantages over traditional on-premise solutions.
• Within Access Management, Multi-Factor Authentication remains the dominant topic. Numerous high-profile incidents have shown that passwords alone no longer provide sufficient protection against hackers.
• As part of many digital transformation projects, Customer Identity & Access Management (CIAM) is a crucial component. However, the CIAM solutions of leading IAM vendors often fall short of expectations, which has allowed specialized providers to gain traction in the market.
• Implementing the technical requirements of the new EU GDPR remains a major challenge for many companies. Some CIAM solutions offer comprehensive approaches to manage user consent, but many organizations are still hesitant to implement CIAM due to perceived effort and complexity.

Conclusion

Once again, visiting it-sa was absolutely worthwhile this year. Where else can you exchange ideas on all IT security topics with so many vendors, clients, and partners in one place? Numerous expert presentations and forums provided additional opportunities to engage in in-depth discussions with specialists on specific topics. The potential of this event is clearly far from exhausted. We are already looking forward to it-sa 2019 and will definitely be there again next year.