Decoding Customer IAM (CIAM) vs. IAM

The world of Identity and Access Management (IAM) is rarely controversial. But today, there is a battle brewing in how we—as an industry—talk about customer-facing use cases for IAM. Many are starting to refer to this as Customer IAM or Consumer IAM, both abbreviated as CIAM.

CIAM does have some unique requirements. But that does not mean that you must use a product that only focuses on CIAM. Okta’s approach is to offer a broad IAM cloud service with a strong foundational platform and functionality that enables CIAM use cases—we believe ultimately a better long-term choice.