As we gear up for EIC 2024, it is time to reflect on impactful trends from the previous year's European Identity and Cloud Conference and look ahead to foresee the major trends likely to shape this year's event.
Only a bit more than two months to go until the global Digital Identity and IAM community gathers again at the European Identity and Cloud Conference (EIC) in Berlin. From June 4th to 7th, we will spend four days packed with interesting sessions. More than 230 sessions, more than 250 speakers – this again will become a great event and the place to be.
When looking back at EIC 2023, I remember the Closing Keynote where I have been talking about three main topics and trends I had observed during that edition of EIC:
- Decentralized Identity becoming a reality: My observation has been that decentralized identity started to shift from a discussion about early protocol developments and concepts to the real-world impact, on enterprise IAM and consumer business.
- AI and Identity: Intensely discussed as a challenge we need to tackle.
- Policy-based Access Controls: Not a new thing, but coming back with strong momentum, for instance in the development of modern digital services. Back in the spotlight.
So, where do we stand with this?
With the recent approval of eIDAS 2.0 by the European Parliament, which involves the EUDI Wallet (EU Decentralized Identity Wallet), the momentum for decentralized identity has experienced a massive leverage. It is the topic in Digital Identity and IAM of today, with many sessions around this at EIC.
AI and Identity also has also got its own track now. For a good reason. It is such an important topic with so many facets: the identity of AI and autonomous components powered by AI, AI empowering IAM, and so on. We started the discussion in 2023 and will continue in 2024.
Policy-based Access Controls still is evolving. We see more and more traction, also in the conversations we have on both the research and the advisory side. More and more organizations are looking at how to make PBAC a reality.
Looking forward to EIC 2024: What can we expect from the next edition? Let me try a prediction of what I will cover on June 7th in the closing keynote:
- Decentralized Identity again: With the momentum in the EU and beyond, it becomes increasingly clear what we already can do and where we need to join forces to meet the needs of businesses, consumers, citizens, and, last but not least, governments.
- AI and Identity or “AIdentity”: I expect the conversations increasingly shift from discussing the challenge (as in 2023) to discussing the solutions.
- Identity Security: There is Digital Identity. There is Cybersecurity. There is Identity Security, which is about the identity impact on cybersecurity. With the ever-increasing threats, this is a topic that will be covered in many sessions.
While you may argue that two out of three will be the same as in 2023, this is not entirely true. On one hand, this demonstrates what the mega-trends are. On the other, we will look at the next level of evolution for these areas. What does it need for the perfect EUDI wallet that everyone wants to use? How will we deal with the identities of autonomous agents or bots acting on our behalf? So many questions. There will be many answers at EIC, but also a lot of food for thought for 2024 and beyond.
But with more than 230 sessions covering such a broad range of topics, from running your IAM well and modernizing it towards an Identity Fabric to Decentralized Identity and the future of CIAM (Consumer IAM), it is hard to predict what finally will be the hottest topics that are not only discussed during sessions throughout the conference, in the breaks, in the evening events, and on all the other occasions EIC provides.
See you in Berlin. Don’t miss booking your individual time with the KuppingerCole Analysts and Advisors early. Looking forward to meeting you in person.