Access Management remains a vital part of organizations’ daily operations. It helps protect the companies’ intellectual assets and plays a vital role in protecting them from issues that can damage the brand image, such as breaches and/or hefty fines. It is, therefore, an essential domain for market research firms as well.
The research also gives the likely clients a glimpse of the usefulness of the software as well as the vendors. A vendor slipping or climbing upwards can have a big impact on their brand image and bottom line. What follows is the analysis of QKS Group ‘s (formerly Quadrant Knowledge Solutions) analysis of the access management market for FY 2023-2024.
2023-2024 changes
| Vendor | 2023 Position | 2024 Position | Comment |
| Microsoft | Leader | Leader | Strong performer with improved technology score. |
| Ping Identity | Top Leader | Top Leader | Consistently high score in both tech and customer impact. |
| Okta | Leader | Leader | Slight improvement in tech excellence. |
| CyberArk | Leader | Leader | Slight repositioning; customer trust remains strong. |
| Entrust | Leader | Leader | Stable performance across multiple years. |
| SecureAuth | Leader | Strong Contender | Moved left — a drop in both axes. |
| IBM | Strong Contender | Strong Contender | Slight improvement in customer impact. |
| Fortinet | Strong Contender | Strong Contender | Minor positive shift. |
| One Identity | Strong Contender | Strong Contender | Slight drop in customer impact. |
| Oracle | Strong Contender | Strong Contender | Almost identical placement, minimal change. |
| OpenText | ❌ Not in 2023 Matrix | Strong Contender | New entrant in 2024, possibly due to the acquisition of Micro Focus. |
| Thales | ❌ Not in 2023 Matrix | Leader | New entrant — strong debut with solid customer impact. |
The deserved leaders
Ping Identity is the acknowledged leader. The company offers a robust set of Identity Access and Management (IAM) tools that can integrate with a variety of systems, including legacy and cloud services. The products achieve this function owing to support for open identity standards, including SAML, OAuth, and SCIM. In addition, the company has a strong track record for innovation.
Up next is Okta. It remains a leader owing to the following factors: It offers the highest value proposition in terms of technology and has a good customer base with a considerable number of deployments. Its product provides all the required capabilities of an access management solution and targets large enterprises as customers.
Okta is followed by Microsoft. Microsoft’s strongest USP is its extensive ecosystem. Its Entra ID offers deep integration with Microsoft 365. It supports multiple types of use cases, and offers strong authentication capabilities and developer support, However, Microsoft’s strategy of frequent renaming of its products remains a major pain point.
Thales is the new kid on the block. The company has achieved the leader placement owing to its capabilities like integration of access management with data security, strength in multi-factor & adaptive authentication, zero trust and cloud-readiness, and focus on compliance and high-security use cases.
Up next are Entrust and CyberArk. A likely factor behind this placement is their security-first DNA and innovation around encryption-based access control.
Missing in action
However, the story differs when it comes to ForgeRock and Micro Focus. ForgeRock’s absence is likely due to its acquisition by Ping Identity. Similarly, Micro Focus’s software business has been acquired by OpenText.
The strong contenders
Fortinet has stayed as a strong contender for 2023 and 2024. The company has deep cybersecurity expertise — not just access management. Its FortiAuthenticator and FortiToken solutions are built on security-first principles. It offers broad Integration with Fortinet Security Fabric, and scalable hardware and virtual appliances. However, it needs to improve its standalone IAM innovation and shake off its perception as a network-centric company, and not an identity-centric one.
Up next is SecureAuth. SPARK places it as a strong contender in 2024, while it was ranked as a leader in 2023. This discrepancy may be because while the company is well known for its adaptive authentication and MFA capabilities, it needs to improve its visibility in the market.
IBM’s continuous placement as a strong contender is perhaps owing to the complexity involved with its offerings and slower cloud-native evolution while delivering a technically solid product.
Another big name is Oracle. Its placement is likely because its product deployments may be complex, and the company is yet to fully modernize.
The other two companies are OpenText and One Identity. Both companies provide decent technological capabilities, but more effort is needed to move up in the market.
Market state
In conclusion, both matrices drive home the point that the Access Management market landscape remains highly competitive and fragmented, with vendors of varied sizes and market focus. Most vendors are solely focused on providing access management solutions, while a few larger companies offer the solution as part of a larger IAM portfolio.