IAM Mapping
IAM mapping is the structured description of the identities, accounts, applications, entitlements, and flows that make up the existing identity landscape.
- Synonym
- identity landscape mappingIAM inventory
Definition
IAM mapping documents what actually exists before a transformation, a migration, or an application onboarding programme. Depending on the objective it can cover populations, identities, identity sources, accounts, applications, entitlements, roles, flows, protocols, owners, dependencies, and criticality levels. Mapping is rarely exhaustive from day one: it is usually built iteratively, starting with the perimeter that carries the most risk or the most business value. Its output feeds prioritisation, integration pattern choices, and the detection of blind spots such as unmanaged accounts, orphaned entitlements, or applications with no identified owner.
Why it matters
IAM mapping is what makes prioritisation and integration choices defensible instead of intuitive.
The Ariovis perspective
You transform badly what you understand badly. Mapping is therefore not a documentation deliverable produced to open a project and then forgotten. It should help take decisions: prioritise applications, identify dependencies, detect blind spots, and choose the right integration patterns.
Related services
Common pitfalls
- A mapping produced only to open a project, then never updated, quickly becomes documentation nobody uses for decisions.
Resources
Explore this category
These concepts matter most inside a real project.
The first conversation helps establish your context, the systems involved and the next useful decision.