Danna Bethlehem | Director, Product Marketing
With new work habits and increased needs to address multiple authentication journeys for all types of users, large enterprises are finally realizing that one-size fit all options to authentication are coming short. Thales is making it easier for organizations to expand authentication coverage tailored to their broad and diverse business needs. Our goal is to protect organizations by enabling them to easily deploy flexible authentication solutions throughout their environments. Our flagship platform, SafeNet Trusted Access, provides high-security multi-factor authentication (MFA) options, while being compliant with a wide variety of authentication methods, enabling pervasive authentication everywhere.
We are very happy that our efforts are being recognized by independent organizations, such as IDC. In the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Advanced Authentication for Identity Security 2021 Vendor Assessment (doc # US46178720, July 2021), Thales is named as a Leader. .
IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the icons.
MFA is not a nice-to-have option
In an era of remote working and accelerated cloud adoption, the implementation of multi-factor authentication is no longer a nice-to-have feature; rather a mandate and a best practice businesses should follow, whether they are in the public, government or private sector. The recent Executive Order by President Biden demonstrated this reality in the most profound manner - agencies have 180 days to “adopt multi-factor authentication and encryption for data at rest and in transit...”and “…prioritize identification of the unclassified data considered to be the most sensitive and under the greatest threat”.
Unfortunately, the status quo is quite worrying. According to the Thales 2021 Data Threat Report, only 55% of survey respondents have implemented Multi Factor Authentication in any form. This omission leaves them open to password compromise which adversaries use to penetrate corporate networks and move laterally undetected. The IDC Report paints an even darker image – the acceptance rate of MFA is as low as 30%, which means that 7 out of 10 organizations are still relying on vulnerable and insecure passwords.
The strengths of Thales authentication solutions
If you are still wondering how to best implement a robust IAM program, the IDC MarketScape report notes that Thales should be your partner (not in crime). According to the report, you should trust your IAM program to Thales especially if “you are a large organization that needs to support a broad range of authentication devices including advanced biometrics and increasingly sophisticated AI-driven and contextual user insights.” This is true because we “support every form of authentication technology available in the market and can leverage technology across multiple business units to deliver unique capabilities to large enterprises.”
When it comes to MFA, Thales “goes to the ultimate depths” to deliver and support all available options. “These conditions more typically surface in multinational accounts where physical, electrical, and cellular challenges present themselves,” notes the IDC report.
The IDC MarketScape report highlights some more strengths of the IAM solutions offered by Thales, including:
- Thales has offered passwordless identity options for at least a decade.
- The use of a cloud delivery rather than a separate packaging approach to deliver advanced authentication solutions.
- Thales is actively contributing to the CAEP/SSE OpenID standards effort to enhance its risk management capabilities and improve its zero-trust competitiveness.
- The company holds a dominant market share position in the European Union market and is an independent supplier of security software — apart from a cloud service provider — which can be an advantage when it comes to compliance with GDPR and Schrems II.
Download an excerpt of the report, IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Advanced Authentication for Identity Security 2021 Vendor Assessment.
More recognition of our leadership in authentication and access management
The IDC MarketScape report is not the first accolade Thales has received recently. During the past year, we were very happy to be featured in three more prominent reports in the IAM market:
- Thales is part of the Gartner Peer Insights Customer First program in the Access Management market for SafeNet Trusted Access. This Gartner program recognizes vendors that are committed to listening to their customers and value their feedback.
- The KuppingerCole report on Enterprise Authentication Solutions concludes that “Customers are typically drawn by the high-security options SafeNet Trusted Access provides. Organizations, in both the public and private sectors, that need high strength MFA options but do not need complex API access to the risk engine may want to consider Thales’ SafeNet Suite.”
- The Gartner report Innovation Insight for Many Flavors of Authentication Token presents a thorough overview of available authentication solutions and highlights that Thales SafeNet Trusted Access is the only solution that offers compatibility with all available options: X.509 tokens, FIDO tokens, OTP tokens and OOB methods.
- The Gartner Market Guide for User Authentication reviews the ever-increasing range of user authentication options by IAM vendors and highlights the ability of SafeNet Trusted Access to support the broad and diverse needs of customers.
If you want to learn more how Thales can help you in your authentication journey, contact the Thales experts to schedule a demo. Alternatively, you may read a ton of useful background info and data sheets on the dedicated page for authentication and access security.