FAQs

What is Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)?

CIAM — Customer Identity and Access Management — refers to the technologies, processes and best practices used to manage and secure customer identities and their access to digital services. CIAM integrations ensure seamless customer experiences while protecting sensitive data, and typically handle the various aspects of user Authentication, Authorization, Protection and lifecycle Management.

How do CIAM and IAM (Identity and Access Management) differ?

While both CIAM and IAM manage identities and access, they essentially serve different purposes:

• CIAM focuses on managing customer identities and ensuring secure, seamless access to services for external users (customers).
• IAM typically handles the identities and access of internal employees and other stakeholders within an organization.

Why is CIAM important?

CIAM is an essential component of any B2C and/or B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution as it allows personalised, secure, and frictionless experiences for customers, improving data security, enhancing user privacy, reducing risk, and supporting compliance with regulations (like GDPR). CIAM also helps in managing large volumes of customer data efficiently.

What are the key features of CIAM?

• Single Sign-On (SSO): A unified login experience across different services.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Additional layers of security beyond passwords.
• Social Login Integration: Enables customers to sign in using social media accounts (e.g., Google, Facebook).
• User Self-Service: Allows users to manage their own accounts, reset passwords, and update personal data, including
  • Profile Management: Managing user data and preferences.
  • Consent Management: Ensures compliance with regulations like GDPR by handling consent for data collection and usage.

What are the benefits of CIAM for users?

• Seamless experience: Users can easily log in and access services without needing to remember multiple credentials.
• Enhanced security: With MFA and secure authentication methods, users’ accounts are less vulnerable to hacking.
• Privacy control: Users have more control over their data and can manage privacy preferences.
• Personalisation: CIAM systems enable businesses to deliver customised experiences based on user preferences and behaviour.

How do I integrate CIAM within my existing applications and systems?

CIAM solutions often provide APIs, SDKs, and pre-built integrations with popular services and applications, making it easier to integrate with your existing infrastructure. Some of the more common challenges when integrating a CIAM solution, however, can include:

• User experience: Striking the right balance between security and convenience can be difficult.
• Data privacy and compliance: Ensuring CIAM solutions comply with data protection laws such as GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA.
• Scalability: Handling large volumes of user data while maintaining performance and security.
• Integration with existing systems: CIAM solutions must integrate with legacy applications and various third-party services, which can be complex.

• Configuring authentication protocols: (e.g., OAuth, SAML).
• Connecting to user directories: (e.g., Active Directory or other cloud services).
• Integrating CIAM features like user registration, authentication, and profile management within your applications.

How is data privacy ensured in a CIAM implementation?

Some of the key strategies to ensure the privacy and security of the customer data handled include:

• Implement data encryption both at rest and in transit.
• Use strong authentication methods (e.g., MFA, biometrics).
• Provide users with clear privacy policies and opt-in consent options.
• Regularly audit and monitor data access.
• Comply with data protection regulations like GDPR by giving users the ability to manage their consent and delete their data.

How does CIAM support compliance with regulations like GDPR or CCPA?

Answer:
CIAM solutions help businesses comply with regulations by:

• Offering tools for managing consent and data subject requests (e.g., the right to be forgotten).
• Ensuring secure data storage and encryption.
• Providing audit trails to track who accesses customer data and when.
• Supporting data portability and allowing users to control their data preferences.

What authentication methods are commonly used in CIAM systems?

• Traditional UserID/Password Authentication
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Combining something the user knows (password) with something they have (a mobile device or hardware token) or something they are (biometrics). This can include
  • Biometric authentication: Using face or fingerprint recognition.
• Social login: Authentication through social media accounts like Google, Facebook, etc.
• Federated login: Establishing secure access to domain resources using identity federation.
• Passkeys: For a phishing-resistant alternative to passwords that incorporates biometric authentication
• Passwordless Authentication: Authentication using various techniques that don’t require a password credential.
• Industry-standard support using OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect and SAML protocols: Used for secure delegated authorization and SSO.

What is Single Sign-On (SSO), and how does it work in a CIAM context?

Single Sign-On (SSO) allows customers to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications or services. With SSO, once a user logs in to one application, they do not need to re-enter credentials for other linked services. This improves user experience by reducing the number of logins and passwords needed while maintaining security across platforms.

What is the role of consent management in CIAM integrations?

Consent management is crucial for ensuring that organisations comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR or CCPA. CIAM integrations should provide capabilities to capture and manage user consent for data collection, processing, and usage. Users should have clear options to consent, withdraw consent, and access their data preferences, ensuring transparency and control over their personal information.

How can CIAM help with customer segmentation and marketing?

CIAM systems provide valuable data on customer preferences, behaviours, and interactions. By managing customer identities effectively, businesses can segment their customer base and deliver more personalised and targeted marketing campaigns. For example, knowing which products a customer is interested in or their preferred communication channel allows you to tailor offers and messaging more effectively.

How can CIAM improve security for my Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution?

Integrating a CIAM solution not only makes things easier for you and your customers but also provides a number of improved security and safety features, through the likes of :

• Strong authentication: e.g., MFA, Passkeys, biometrics to help prevent unauthorised access.
• Behavioural analytics: to detect unusual activity and potential fraud.
• Access control: such as RBAC, ReBAC and ABAC to restrict access based on user roles and permissions.
• Data encryption: to protect sensitive user information.
• Compliance with best-practice security standards and regulations: to help avoid legal issues and data breaches.

What are some of the more popular CIAM solutions?

• Keycloak: A comprehensive and well-known open-source implementation offering a cost-effective DIY approach to CIAM and CIAM SaaS platform hosting. A number of 3rd party hosting providers for Keycloak are also available, and whilst many of these are more IAM than CIAM focused, they can offer a DIY approach that is also a managed solution…
  • Phase Two — who also offer a free Starter option if you want to get quickly started with prototyping/testing
  • Login Factor
  • Plus Server
  • Intension
  • Skycloak
• Clerk: A modern 3rd-party SaaS platform with an emphasis on user management via an easy-to-use component integration strategy.
• WorkOS: Another modern 3rd party SaaS platform, this time with an emphasis on B2B SaaS solutions.
• Auth0 by Okta: Arguably one of the most well-known 3rd party SaaS CIAM platforms.
• LoginRadius: Self-billed as the #1 3rd party CIAM SaaS alternative to Auth0.
• FrontEgg: An Auth0 alternative 3rd party SaaS solution, particularly when it comes to B2B use cases.
• FusionAuth: Another 3rd party SaaS alternative to Auth0
• Descope: Self-proclaimed “drag & drop” CIAM for any application
• Ping Identity: A 3rd party SaaS solution offering advanced CIAM features, including SSO and MFA.
• Microsoft Azure AD B2C – a.k.a. Entra ID: Microsoft’s 3rd party cloud-based solution for managing customer identities.
• Firebase: Authentication built into Google’s own 3rd party platform for Web and Mobile app development
• Cognito: Amazon’s own 3rd party identity platform for web and mobile apps

Read more on what you should be looking for in a CIAM solution, along with the relative merits of Build vs Buy vs DIY (hint — almost always avoid the former, whichever of the other routes you decide to go 😎), in the following article: