Forgerock and Ping Identity - the merger that only matters to customers! 

Forgerock and Ping Identity – the merger that only matters to customers!

Thoma Bravo announces the completion of its acquisition of Forgerock and integration with Ping Identity.For understanding: Thoma Bravo is an investment company with focus on software and technology companies. Thoma Bravo is known for its buy-and-build strategy, acquiring existing companies and then developing them through strategic investments and acquisitions.The acquisition of Forgerock, a multinational Identity and Access Management software company, was announced in late 2022 and approved by Forgerock’s investors in early 2023. It was still unclear how Thoma Bravo would deal with Forgerock and Ping Identity, since they are direct competitors. But with the current announcement, Thoma Bravo makes this clear – Forgerock will be or is part of Ping Identity.

What does this mean for the Identity & Access Management market and customers?

In terms of buy-and-build strategy, direct competitors tend to be suboptimal; complementary products and services that can be used to extend a platform and make the product offering more appropriate.

The impact on customers is likely to be significant – Forgerock and Ping Identity are direct competitors and offer equivalent software products and solutions. There will inevitably be a consolidation of the product range, which will lead to a change for customers, for example through associated migrations. What will change for customers and when is not yet foreseeable, the internal tug-of-war and trench warfare between Ping Identity and Forgerock has probably only just begun. Such uncertainty is nevertheless a major risk for any strategic software solution, especially for Identity & Access Management.

A consolidation to the detriment of Forgerock and Ping Identity?

The merger will tie up internal resources, and both the organizational merger and the migration of customers is going to be a challenge. This can have an impact on the innovative strength and product roadmap.

For the competition, this is a thoroughly pleasing development; competitors who are preoccupied with themselves strengthen the position of the competition. In addition, competitors may hope to attract migrated customers from Forgerock and Ping Identity as they may become frustrated with a pending migration, lack of innovation, or other pending changes.

The Identity & Access Management market is very broad and even if Forgerock and Ping Identity are among the larger players in the market, there is no reason to fear any impact on the innovative power or developments in the market.

The merger of Forgerock and Ping Identity is therefore only important for customers, is not further relevant for the market, and has neither a positive nor a negative impact.

For customers and especially for interested parties, now is the time to look at an alternative Identity & Access Management solution, e.g., the leading European Cloud Identity & Access Management – cidaas.

About cidaas

cidaas, the European cloud identity and access management system from Widas ID GmbH, delivers an out-of-the-box solution for federated identities, single sign-on and multifactor authentication. With cidaas, companies create unique user identification and maximum security across all channels. Based on the standards OAuth2.0, OpenID and its “Everything is an API” architecture, cidaas can be seamlessly integrated into any software landscape and scales effortlessly up to many millions of users.

Looking for an alternative? Get a direct comparison here and find out why cidaas is the best alternative: