Digital Identity

Conclusion

Centralized, ad hoc approaches to digital identity management, whether inside an enterprise or in federations with partners, will inevitably encounter a host of problems. Many of these threats are not obvious ahead of time. However, it is critical to understand digital identity as an ongoing process subject to significant demands. Federated identity is an important underpinning for the increasingly distributed worlds of information technology and business. As companies link themselves more closely with their customers, employees, and partners, federated identity mechanisms must scale to accommodate new demands and counter a wide variety of threats.

As the early history of the credit card industry demonstrates, ad hoc and centralized approaches to federated identity are difficult to scale and can be unstable. Just as Visa succeeded in creating a foundation for the explosive growth of the credit card industry by establishing a member-owned network for managing identity-related processes and systems, an independent identity network can help its members successfully navigate the requirements of the emerging world of federated digital identity.