Gartner named Ping Identity, Microsoft, Okta, ForgeRock and IBM as leaders in its latest Magic Quadrant for Access Management report.

The firm defined access management as a platform that includes an identity provider and establishes, manages and enforces runtime access controls to at least cloud, modern standards-based web and classic web applications.

Access management can be used to enhance the user experience by enabling single sign-on (SSO) access for the workforce, consumers and other users, as well as machines into protected applications. It also provides security controls to protect the user session in runtime, while enforcing authentication with multifactor authentication (MFA) and authorization using adaptive access. Additionally, access management platforms support identity-first security by offering identity context to other cybersecurity tools.

Gartner identifies the must-have capabilities including a directory or identity repository for users; identity administration for integrated applications basic life cycle management and profile management capabilities and the system for cross-domain identity management; SSO and session management, compatible with standard identity protocols and APIs for accessing standards-based and legacy apps; and user authentication including commodity MFA and authorization enforcement.

Software investor Thoma Bravo acquired Ping Identity for $2.8 billion last year and ForgeRock for $2.3 billion in August. The private equity firm merged the two identity providers when the deal closed.

Gartner categorized both Ping Identity and ForgeRock as leaders in the Magic Quadrant report and noted the merge announcement was made after the cutoff date for this research.

According to the analysis firm, Ping Identity offers PingOne Cloud Platform delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS), along with several access management products, such as PingFederate, PingAccess, PingDirectory and PingCentral.

Gartner analysts also gave the highest scores for completeness of vision, offering product strategy and innovation, marketing strategy, marketing responsiveness and track record to Ping Identity among all the vendors in the report.

However, the firm pointed out the vendor’s portfolio can be complex to understand and deploy and its pricing for customer identity and access management (CIAM) use cases is higher than its competitors in this report.

On the other hand, ForgeRock Identity Cloud product is a converged SaaS identity access and management (IAM) platform. The vendor also offers its Access Management product as software.

It obtained the highest score for its product capabilities, one of the highest scores for its business model and above-average scores in user authentication.

But Gartner cautioned that ForgeRock’s access management product prices are above average among the report's vendors. The vendor also lags in SaaS adoption with the lowest number of SaaS customers among all the leaders. It is also not an easy solution for deployment, similar to Ping Identity.

In light of the merger announcement, Gartner advised prospective and existing customers of both Ping Identity and ForgeRock to inquire about the vendors’ future product plans.

According to the report, Microsoft Entra ID (formerly known as Azure AD) and Azure AD External Identities are the vendor’s workforce and CIAM products delivered as SaaS, which are sold in a converged IAM platform in bundles and individual modules.

Okta’s access management products are also delivered as SaaS and sold in bundles such as Okta Workforce Identity Cloud and customer Identity Cloud and individual modules as part of a converged IAM platform.

The IBM Security Verify products are again delivered as SaaS and sold in a bundle or individual modules. The vendor also offers IBM Security Verify Access as software.

Gartner also identified CyberArk, Entrust and One Identity (OneLogin) as challengers, Oracle and OpenText as niche players and Thales as visionaries.