Risky Bulletin Sponsored: What is Extended Identity Access Management?
Mar 22, 2026
Fletcher Heisler, founder and CEO of open source identity provider Authentik, explains Extended Identity Access Management (XIAM) and why identity must cover humans, agents, and devices. He discusses stateless, multi‑cloud deployments, risks of proprietary cloud IDPs, and how agentic AI needs identity guardrails. He also touches on consolidation, resiliency, and Authentik’s cautious approach to AI features.
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Extended IAM Means Identity For Every Type Of User
- Extended IAM (XIAM) means one cohesive identity platform for humans, non-humans, workforce, customers and customers' customers.
- Fletcher Heisler built Authentic as a stateless, deploy-anywhere IDP to cover full user lifecycles and run multi-region, multi-cloud or on-premises installations.
Consolidation And Resiliency Are Driving XIAM Adoption
- Market demand driving XIAM is consolidation, resiliency and reducing duct-taped identity stacks.
- Heisler warned that multiple IDPs plus orchestration adds fragility and that businesses need to keep critical tokens closer in-house for security and availability.
Prefer Flexible Open Identity Over Proprietary Black Boxes
- Favor flexible, open identity infrastructure that exposes attributes and mapping rather than opaque proprietary IDPs.
- Heisler recommends reading attributes directly and mapping users yourself to avoid waiting on vendor feature rollouts.