Identity at the Center

Jim McDonald and Jeff Steadman took the Identity at the Center podcast live at Identiverse 2026 in Las Vegas for a crowd-sourced game show called Majority Rules. Identity professionals competed in real time, picking answers to IAM and conference questions in a race to predict the majority. With a prize pool of over $5,000 for the top ten scorers, the stakes were high and the honesty was brutal. The episode also marks a milestone: IDAC hitting two million downloads. Thanks to Shirley Han and the CyberRisk Alliance team, and to sponsors Hyper, Red Block, SlashId, Rubrik, Stratacity, FusionAuth, Nexus, CrowdStrike, Hush Security, PlainId, RSM, and CyberRisk Alliance.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:
Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/
Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/
Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com

0:00 Introduction and Two Million Downloads Milestone
1:00 Sponsor and Event Team Recognition
3:00 How to Play Majority Rules
4:00 Warm-Up Round Begins
6:00 Battle Royale Mode Explained
8:30 Decentralized Identity and the LDAP Reality
10:30 Las Vegas Evening Entertainment
11:30 Top Identity Trends at Identiverse 2026
12:30 Access Certification and the 4:55 PM Click
13:30 Classic Vegas and Expo Hall Favorites
14:50 PAM Strategies and the Post-it Note
16:00 Conference Navigation and Footwear Survival
18:00 Identity Log Monitoring Chaos
19:30 Hallway Track Conversations
20:30 Cloud Entitlements and Everyone Gets Root
21:00 Sleep Habits at a Security Conference
22:00 Business Cards in 2026
23:00 Legacy App Strategy and Thoughts and Prayers
24:45 Las Vegas Dining Preferences
25:30 Winners Announced and Closing

Keywords: IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Identiverse, Identiverse 2026, Majority Rules, live event, game show, IAM, identity and access management, decentralized identity, LDAP, SSO, PAM, privileged access management, cloud entitlements, ISPM, access certification, Las Vegas, cybersecurity, conference

Recorded the night before Identiverse 2026 at BrewDog in Las Vegas, Jeff hosts a roundtable of IdentiBeer chapter leaders and community members from around the world. Espen Bago (Oslo), Marco Venuti (Rome and Milan), Heiko Klarl (Munich), Craig Ramsay (Nashville), Tina Srivastava and Elie Azerad (San Francisco), Bertrand Carlier (Paris, in planning), Ole Shved (Detroit, forming), and Roland Baum (Frankfurt) share what makes IdentiBeer work, how chapters get started, and what draws people in. First-time Identiverse attendee Varshith Reddy joins mid-conversation for some live conference tips. The group celebrates going 35 minutes without mentioning AI and closes with everyone's drink of choice and an impromptu MFA rap.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:
Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/
Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/
Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com

0:00 Welcome and intro
0:41 What is IdentiBeer? Espen Bago explains
2:31 Marco Venuti and the Italian chapters
5:07 Could there be an IdentiBeer conference?
6:03 Heiko Klarl and IdentiBeer Munich
7:09 Craig Ramsay and the new Nashville chapter
9:53 Beer is just clickbait and vendor neutrality
12:45 Tina Srivastava and the IDPro Slack connection
13:18 Ole Shved and the future Detroit chapter
14:14 Advice for new chapter organizers
16:33 Keep the momentum: do another one soon
17:01 What draws people to IdentiBeer?
17:37 The IdentiBeer charter and inclusivity
18:20 Elie Azerad and the San Francisco chapter
21:08 Tina and the South Bay satellite idea
25:50 Bertrand Carlier and plans for Paris
29:31 Varshith Reddy: tips for first-time Identiverse attendees
34:12 35 minutes without saying AI
36:20 Roland Baum and the Frankfurt Identivier
39:06 What is your drink of choice?
40:48 Tina's MFA rap and closing thoughts

Keywords: IdentiBeer, Identiverse 2026, IAM community, Identity and Access Management, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, IDAC, Identity at the Center, Espen Bago, Marco Venuti, Heiko Klarl, Craig Ramsay, Tina Srivastava, Elie Azerad, Bertrand Carlier, Ole Shved, Roland Baum, Varshith Reddy, IDPro, community building, vendor neutral, IAM networking, Las Vegas

Jim McDonald sits down with Dan Moore, Senior Director of CIAM Strategy and Identity Standards at FusionAuth, for an in-depth conversation on customer identity and access management. Dan explains how FusionAuth views authentication as the front door to any application and why control, deployment flexibility, and developer ownership are central to their approach. The discussion covers progressive registration, friction vs. usability, customization options, identity standards, the build vs. buy debate, risk-based MFA, and how AI agents will shape the future of customer identity. This episode and others is made possible with support from FusionAuth. Learn more at fusionauth.io/idac.

Connect with Dan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mooreds/

Learn more about FusionAuth: https://fusionauth.io/idac

Blog article mentioned: https://bobdahacker.com/blog/fifa-hack

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/
Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/

Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com

00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:18 What is FusionAuth?
00:03:15 Dan's identity origin story
00:04:19 Developer focus and ethos
00:06:54 Authentication as the front door
00:10:00 Balancing friction and usability
00:15:24 Customization in CIAM
00:18:10 What sets FusionAuth apart
00:20:33 FusionAuth's customer sweet spot
00:25:48 Deployment flexibility and the control spectrum
00:30:19 Common challenges in CIAM
00:33:06 Build vs. buy for authentication
00:36:00 Omni-channel authentication
00:40:27 Why identity standards matter
00:42:07 Risk-based MFA and intelligent challenges
00:45:00 AI agents and the future of CIAM
00:49:23 Closing thoughts
00:51:35 Vacation roundup

Keywords: IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Dan Moore, FusionAuth, CIAM, customer identity, authentication, access management, IAM, identity standards, MFA, risk-based authentication, progressive registration, OAuth, OIDC, SAML, AI agents, deployment flexibility, build vs buy, Sponsor Spotlight

Jim McDonald takes the Identity at the Center podcast on the road to Rome, Italy, for a special two-part episode. The first segment is an IdentiBeer roundup where Jim gathers quick-fire takes from practitioners in the Italian IAM community, including Andrea Rossi and Alessandro Piscopo of IAMONES and Marco Venuti of Thales on the biggest trends shaping identity today. The second segment is a three-course meal where Jim sits down with Alessandro Piscopo, Head of AI and Co-founder at IAMONES, to discuss AI and identity over food and wine.

Across a seafood starter, scialatielli alla pescatora, and tiramisu, the conversation covers the history of AI in identity, why LLMs represent a revolution rather than an evolution, the AI-first product philosophy versus retrofitting AI onto legacy systems, compute and architecture constraints facing large language models, and what life looks like for the IAM practitioner in 2030. Alessandro envisions an identity equivalent of Claude Code, a specialized AI tool that democratizes identity expertise the way coding assistants have transformed software development.

0:00 Intro and IdentiBeer Rome roundup
7:01 Alessandro on AI for IAM vs. IAM for AI
12:00 Three-course dinner begins - Course 1: Seafood starter
14:09 History of AI in identity, from ML models to LLMs
17:51 Course 2: Scialatielli alla pescatora and Falanghina wine
19:56 AI-first products vs. AI layered onto legacy systems
22:00 Transition period and the new world of identity
24:04 The ChatGPT moment vs. the iPhone moment
27:05 Compute constraints, energy costs, and architecture breakthroughs
30:46 Smaller models and cost-efficiency tradeoffs
32:35 Course 3: Tiramisu, baba, and espresso
33:00 Life as an IAM practitioner in 2030
35:19 Claude Code for IAM and democratizing identity tools
37:24 App store ecosystem analogy for AI platforms
43:07 Closing thoughts

Keywords: IAM, identity and access management, AI for IAM, IAM for AI, agentic AI, non-human identity, IGA, LLMs, large language models, AI-first, machine learning, Alessandro Piscopo, IAMONES, Jim McDonald, Jeff Steadman, Identity at the Center, IDAC, IdentiBeer, Rome, Italy, Marco Venuti, Thales, Andrea Rossi, agentic identity, transformer architecture, compute efficiency, identity practitioner 2030, Claude Code for IAM, identity democratization, Identiverse, European Identity Conference

Recorded live at EIC 2026 in Berlin, Jeff and Jim sit down with Martin Kuppinger, founder and distinguished analyst at KuppingerCole. They dig into the tectonic shifts AI is bringing to identity and security, the AI security fabric framework, why decentralized identity thinking may be essential for governing the agentic mesh, the ongoing debate over NHI terminology, what organizations can do tactically today, and what concerns Martin most about where the industry is heading by 2030.

Connect with Martin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinkuppinger/

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/

Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/

Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:50 What a Distinguished Analyst Does
01:37 EIC 2026: Thought Leadership and Best Practice
04:17 Agentic AI: Non-Directed, Non-Deterministic Identity
08:22 Speed of Change: Tactical Now, Strategic Later
12:34 The AI Security Fabric: Five Capability Blocks
15:10 Identity Fabric Origins and Market Growth
18:27 Discovery as the Foundation for Governance
19:48 Governance, Explainability, and Organizational Gaps
22:00 Agent Lineage and Rethinking NHI Terminology
23:50 LLMs vs. Small Language Models
26:23 Is Agentic Identity a Genuinely New Problem?
32:29 Humanoid Robots and the Limits of AI Reasoning
37:05 Decentralized Identity, Trust Frameworks, and Signals
41:07 Identity Verification and Consent for Agents
48:42 What Concerns Martin About the Future of Identity
50:34 Favorite AI Application: Assisted Driving
55:00 Self-Driving Cars, Data, and Personal Privacy

Keywords: Martin Kuppinger, KuppingerCole, EIC 2026, EIC Berlin, agentic AI, AI security fabric, identity fabric, decentralized identity, AI governance, non-human identity, autonomous identity, dependent identity, agent lineage, explainability, MCP server, small language models, verifiable credentials, risk-based authorization, OT security, IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, IAM, identity security