Digital Identities
The digital expression of identity grows increasingly complex every day. Not long ago, an employee’s entire digital presence belonged almost exclusively to the employer, a practice that culminated in the mainframe ID. As enterprise technology expanded to include new tools and platforms, the number of digital identities grew. Today, many workers must manage a dozen or more user names and passwords across different roles on different systems to do their jobs.
Outside their workplaces, users established personal credentials on banking portals, consumer products sites, loyalty and reward programs, e-commerce retailers, local government services, home insurance policies and even remote access to cable TV. Along the way, these personal digital identities have continued to blend into the digital enterprise.
Organizations see the power in providing this identity – a logical, single, overall digital identity with a unified view, brokered across several different systems and security profiles. Today, industry groups and government bodies are pushing broader efforts that may become the backbone of a more substantial digital identity.
Does this trend lead to a universal digital identity, seamlessly crossing between professional, private and social lives? Enterprises today have a mandate to more seamlessly manage and enable digital identities for the personas of their employees, customers and partners, within and across enterprises; all of which lays the groundwork for shaping and creating a truly universal digital identity.
