Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Edited by Apryl Motley, CAE – Communications & Technical Writing Consultant
Throughout 2024, we asked members of the InCommon community to share the best identity and access management (IAM) advice they had ever received and from whom. Here are five pieces of the best IAM advice ever.
1. “Slow and steady wins the race.”
(Marta Lang, University of Texas at Austin)
2. “The best IAM advice I’ve received came from Lev Gonick, enterprise chief information officer at ASU. Instead of always being on the defensive, he says think offensively. Stay proactive and lead rather than simply reacting to threats. This mindset shift has been instrumental in shaping my approach to cybersecurity and digital trust. By adopting a proactive stance, we can empower ourselves and our organizations to be one step ahead, setting the tone for a secure and trusted digital environment.”
(Dr. Donna Kidwell, University of Toronto)
3. “Go to TechEX and make friends.”
(Andy Morgan and Jason Peak, Oregon State University)
4. “Identity is the new perimeter! All the firewalls and hardware/software solutions can be thwarted if someone has the credentials to get through.”
(Heidi Thompson, Grinnell College)
5. “It actually comes from the show “Parks and Recreation” and Nick Offerman’s character Ron Swanson: “You choose a thankless job, you can’t be upset when nobody thanks you.” I always find that relevant to IAM (and most IT roles in general) because we do things that people see and experience every day, but they will hardly ever consider the people behind the scenes making it all work—unless something goes wrong!”
(Grady Bailey, Internet2)
Get More Great IAM Advice
Join us for IAM Online, our monthly webinar series. To register for upcoming webinars, visit our IAM Online webpage, where the latest webinar will be posted at the top with a registration link. Previous webinar recordings and resources are still available in our IAM Online Rewind section or on our YouTube channel.