IAM Industry Leaders Map Out 2025’s Critical Trends & Guidance for Higher Ed

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

By Jean Chorazyczewski, InCommon Academy Director

IAM Online: February 2025 Speaker Spotlight

With so many developments unfolding in identity and access management (IAM), it’s no wonder why institutions must pay attention to critical trends that are emerging. 

How will AI shape IAM operations? What’s the latest on OpenID Federation, and why does it matter? Can federation proxies help institutions participate in federated services while managing risk and maintaining existing systems? What lessons can be learned from higher education leaders navigating challenges?

Our upcoming webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 1 p.m. ET entitled “2025 Identity Trends & Forecasts for the Year Ahead: What’s Taking Center Stage in Research & Education” brings together an exceptional panel of InCommon Catalysts who are at the forefront of these trends. 

These industry leaders will share their insights and guidance on four key areas that are set to define IAM in 2025: the integration of AI into IAM operations as well as role mining and outlier detection, CACTI’s work on OpenID Federation, the strategic role of proxies in federation participation, and vital perspectives from higher education leadership.

These Trends at a Glance

AI-Powered IAM – AI is transforming IAM in two critical ways, among many. First, by automating administrative tasks like student record management and access provisioning, thus reducing manual burden and improving efficiency. Second, through role mining and outlier detection that strengthen security by analyzing access patterns, optimizing permissions, and identifying potential threats.

While these advances offer significant benefits, institutions are carefully considering challenges around data security, model control, and even environmental impact.

OpenID Federation – The emerging shift toward OpenID Federation is fundamentally changing trust relationships in higher education.

This new approach to federation replaces static, pre-established trust agreements with dynamic “trust chains,” meaning institutions can establish trust relationships automatically through a decentralized model. This architectural evolution enables more flexible collaboration while maintaining security across institutional boundaries.

Shifting to OpenID Federation will help prepare our community for the future. It will position us to adopt modern standards with greater cryptographic agility and provide the foundation for secure, trustworthy data exchange with the larger world. This exciting new trust infrastructure could support use cases across academic credentials, student IDs, libraries, finance, healthcare, government, and more.

Federation Proxies – Federation proxies are emerging as essential architectural components for managing risk in evolving access environments. These components act as intermediaries between identity providers and services, enabling institutions to participate in federated activities while maintaining control over their authentication infrastructure.

This approach is particularly valuable for institutions seeking to modernize gradually or those needing to maintain specific security policies while still participating in the broader federation ecosystem.

Leadership Perspectives – Many institutions face staff turnover, reduced budgets, and loss of expertise. Yet many successfully build sustainable IAM programs by leveraging community resources and open-source solutions. These institutions are finding innovative ways to develop internal expertise while aligning their IAM modernization efforts with broader institutional priorities.

Tips from our Panelists

In advance of the webinar, some of our speakers shared some valuable tips on pressing IAM challenges:

For institutions looking to stay current with OpenID Federation developments, Drew Capener emphasizes the importance of direct participation. 

“Send people to participate in the CACTI PORE working group,” Capener said. He particularly encourages those with standards/profile development experience to get involved.

When it comes to scenarios where an institution should consider deploying a federation proxy, Mark Rank offers practical guidance.

“The short answer is that an institution should consider deploying a federation proxy when it needs to manage the risk of evolving its access environment while maintaining access for users,” Rank said. “Federation proxies can be particularly effective in two key scenarios: integrating new access technologies into an existing IAM ecosystem and preserving the functionality of legacy technologies during a transition to modern federation practices. A proxy can help institutions balance innovation with operational stability. For deeper insights into best practices and implementation strategies, institutions may want to explore the work of the InCommon Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) working group on Federation Proxies.”

Addressing the critical challenges of staff turnover and resource constraints, Paul Spaude recommends leveraging flexible open-source IAM software, such as one or more components of the InCommon Trusted Access Platform (ITAP).

Widely adopted across higher education, ITAP enables institutions to collaborate, share best practices, and develop effective strategies. Spaude highlights the value of InCommon Catalysts, community collaboration through the InCommon Collaboration Success Program, and various Internet2 working groups.

On the AI frontier, Stephen Fox introduces some of the current applications of AI in the IAM space, while Simona Simkova highlights some specific examples of how IAM is helping streamline IAM operations. Finally, Zac Adams raises important considerations about sensitive data protection and environmental impacts, suggesting locally hosted models as a potential solution for some of these challenges.

Join Us for IAM Online

If these trends spark your curiosity and you’re looking for expert guidance on navigating the evolving IAM landscape, don’t miss our upcoming webinar, “2025 Identity Trends & Forecasts for the Year Ahead,” on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 1 p.m. ET. Join leading IAM experts from InCommon Catalysts as they unpack these critical developments and share insights to help your institution plan for the future.

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