Leverage existing free open source software to build an identity and access management (IAM) platform that can serve your organization for the long term. With the emergence of open standards and open source software, it's now easier than ever to build and operate your own IAM stack. The most common culprit of the largest hacks has been bad personal identification. In terms of value, effective access control is the best investment you can make. Financially, it's more valuable to prevent than to detect a security breach. That's why identity and access management (IAM) is a critical component of an organization's security infrastructure. In the past, IAM software has been available only from large enterprise software vendors. Commercial IAM offerings are bundled as suites because IAM is not just one component; it's a number of components working together.