How to rationalize IDPs (without painful migrations)

For enterprise CIOs, CISOs, and IT leaders, managing multiple identity providers (IDPs) is a costly, complex, and security-intensive challenge. Whether due to M&A activities, multi-cloud strategies, or regulatory requirements, fragmented identity ecosystems drive up expenses, increase security risks, and hinder operational efficiency.

Why organizations run multiple identity providers

Large enterprises often run multiple identity providers for various business and technical reasons, but managing various IDPs can lead to several challenges. Understanding the drivers behind multi-IdP environments is the first step toward building a unified identity strategy that enhances security while enabling flexibility. Here’s a breakdown of reasons why enterprises run multiple IDPs:

• Mergers and acquisitions (M&A). When companies merge or acquire others, they inherit multiple IDPs from different IT infrastructures.
• Multi-cloud & hybrid environments. Organizations using different cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) may deploy separate IDPs optimized for each environment.
• Different business units or subsidiaries. Large enterprises with semi-autonomous business units often manage their IDPs based on unique security or compliance needs.
• Customer vs. workforce identity. A company might use one IDP for internal employees (e.g., Microsoft Entra ID) and another for external customers (e.g., Okta, Auth0).
• Legacy systems & modernization efforts. Organizations transitioning from on-premises Active Directory (AD) to cloud-based IdPs may run both during migration.
• Compliance & regional regulations. Some regions require data sovereignty or compliance with local identity standards, leading to multiple IdPs across geographies.
• Security & redundancy. Some organizations deploy multiple IDPs as backups or to limit exposure if one IDP is compromised.

Running multiple identity providers may be a necessity for many enterprises, but it introduces complexity in governance, integration, and security. Each IdP serves a distinct purpose, shaped by business needs, infrastructure choices, or compliance constraints. However, this fragmented identity landscape can create silos, increase administrative overhead, and pose risks if not orchestrated effectively. 

Why identity fragmentation becomes a real problem

At first, having multiple identity providers might seem like a necessary side effect of growth, especially after a few acquisitions or cloud migrations. However, over time, this fragmented identity architecture starts to cause severe headaches.

For starters, it’s expensive. Running multiple IDPs means paying for overlapping licenses, support, and ongoing maintenance. That money goes to complexity, not innovation.

It also slows things down. Each IDP tends to live in its little world, managed by different teams with their own policies and processes. That makes it harder to coordinate access and troubleshoot, and it is nearly impossible to enforce consistent controls across your environments.

Multi-cloud only amplifies the issue. If you have separate IDPs for AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-prem systems, you’re juggling IAM policies in multiple places. That increases the risk of misconfigurations and missed alerts and makes it harder to respond quickly when something goes wrong.

Then there’s the user experience. Frustration builds quickly when users need to log in multiple times across different apps or platforms. It’s inefficient and opens the door to risky workarounds like password reuse or unsanctioned tools.

From a security perspective, every additional IDP is another potential attack surface. It makes monitoring access, detecting anomalies, and preventing credential sprawl harder. Identity lifecycle tasks — onboarding, offboarding, or enforcing role-based access control — become manual, error-prone, and inconsistent.

In short, identity sprawl isn’t just an IT problem. It’s a cost problem, a security problem, and a user experience problem. And the longer it goes unchecked, the more it holds your business back.

The solution: Rationalize IDPs without disruptive migrations

Enterprises often run multiple IDPs simultaneously, forcing applications to support various authentication methods, leading to unnecessary complexity and cost. Traditionally, achieving IDP unification required significant application code changes. Today, you can use a Unified Identity Layer (UIL) enabled by Identity Orchestration to unify and streamline identity management without needing an expensive rip-and-replace approach. By leveraging Identity Orchestration, enterprises can:

• Unify single sign-on. Applications authenticate without direct IDP dependencies, allowing seamless integration of multiple IDPs across multiple applications, including legacy applications.
• Gradual IDP rationalization. Legacy IDPs can continue operating while organizations transition to more cost-effective solutions at their own pace.
• Avoids costly migrations. Eliminates the need for disruptive and expensive re-architecting efforts.
• Enhance IAM resilience. Add resilience to the remaining IAM infrastructure for enhanced availability. 

With a Unified Identity Layer powered by Identity Orchestration, organizations can finally move beyond the false choice between complexity and disruption. Instead of forcing every app to conform to every IDP — or embarking on risky, big-bang migrations — enterprises gain the flexibility to modernize on their own terms. It’s a smarter, phased approach that simplifies identity management, reduces cost, and strengthens security, all while keeping your applications—and your users—running smoothly.

IAM fragmented architecture

In a fragmented environment, multiple IDPs must be synchronized with identity sources and configured for each unique application. In addition, access and conditional policies must be replicated for each identity provider type. This drives significant complexity and, over time, becomes cost-prohibitive and increases security risks.

Fragmented architecture

Architect’s perspective: solving IDP fragmentation without migration

CIOs and IAM architects do not need to rip and replace to rationalize the identity infrastructure over time. With unified SSO across multiple IDPs, you can solve the fragmentation problem without migrating identities or significantly impacting applications or the business. It can be done following the guidelines below:

• Abstract IDP complexity – Unifies multiple IDPs into a logical identity orchestration layer.
• Enable unified and seamless authentication – Applications work with any IDP, requiring no significant changes.
• Centralized policy enforcement  – Consistent IAM policies across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
• Interoperability –This ensures IDPs can coexist instead of causing fragmentation.

For IAM Architects, the goal isn’t just rationalization — it’s interoperability and simplicity. This approach enables multiple IDPs to work together rather than forcing fragmentation.

Rationalized & simplified architecture

Identity configuration: How to rationalize IDPs

Rationalizing IDPs may involve various tasks depending on an organization’s business and associated processes. 

In most cases, identity synchronization between identity providers must be enabled. This can be done either through the Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) platform or through an identity synchronization function of the orchestrator, such as the Strata Maverics Orchestrator (SMO).

Once Identities are synchronized, you may enable single sign-on processes for all applications, lines of business, or separate and affiliated entities. 

When using Strata to rationalize your IDPs, you generally have to go through five main steps:

1. Configure identity synchronization – First, ensure your IDPs have the same user information so that no matter where the orchestrator sends the authentication request, the user can use the same credentials and experience the same login scenarios.
2. Configure the IDPs – This step involves configuring the IDPs using the Maverics user interface. This will make the IDPs available to the orchestrator user flows when creating a user flow between the user and upstream protected application.
3. Configure the applications – Using the Maverics user interface, configure the application type (OAuth/OIDC, SAML, or Proxy) and make it available to the orchestrator. This allows for easy configuration of the user flow between the user, the IDP, and the application.
4. Finally, configure the user flow – Configure the user flows to provide the best user experience across IDPs and applications for authentication and single sign-on to the protected upstream applications.
5. Schedule the deprecation of one or more IDPs without disrupting the business. The orchestrator will be responsible for seamlessly sending users to the primary and/or secondary IDP (for resilience) for authentication. 

For more information, visit the Strata documentation site.

The business impact: cost savings & operational efficiency with Strata

Enterprises evaluating identity modernization efforts often underestimate the hidden costs of maintaining a fragmented identity architecture. From redundant licenses to manual admin labor and complex migration projects, these expenses add up quickly. 

Strata’s Identity Orchestration platform offers a cost-effective alternative by enabling organizations to unify identity systems without major disruptions. The following breakdown highlights the typical areas where enterprises realize significant savings after implementing a Unified Identity Layer (UIL).

*Actual savings depend on each organization’s cost benefit and ROI analysis.
(Reduce starting point strata investment from ROI = $175K)

These savings reflect more than just reduced line items — they represent a strategic shift toward a more agile, resilient, and cost-efficient identity infrastructure. By avoiding disruptive migrations and simplifying IAM operations, organizations can reinvest resources into innovation and security where it matters most.

Get started: Unlock cost savings & simplify IAM 

If your enterprise struggles with IAM complexity and overspending, request a free IAM cost analysis and see a live demo of Strata’s Maverics Platform today to learn how Strata can help you optimize your identity management strategy and reduce costs. Ready to simplify your identity infrastructure—without breaking what’s already working? Explore how Strata helps you rationalize IDPs with zero disruption. See how it works ›