A purchase decision regarding security software should never be taken lightly.  Bad actors are getting more aggressive and more efficient, and mis-steps can result in a material impact to your bottom line – particularly when it comes to authentication, with 84 percent of organizations having experienced an identity-related attack in the last year.  That’s why senior-level security executives are increasingly turning to peer reviews to get a better sense of the top players in the market.  As they say, a strong testimonial always goes a long way in determining where to place your bets.

With that context, it was incredibly rewarding to wake up the other day and see that Axiad had been listed as the market leader – with a number-one ranking, complete with a leader badge – on PeerSpot for the passwordless authentication space.

If you’re unfamiliar with PeerSpot, you shouldn’t be.  Reviews submitted on this site – regarding technology and technology vendors – are based on in-depth interviews, which result in the industry’s most-authoritative customer reviews.  In short, if you’re a market leader in this forum (and its more than 650,000 customer reviews strong), it’s a powerful validation of what you’ve built.

How Do You Become a Leader in Passwordless Authentication?

Now you may be wondering, what does it take to be considered a market leader in passwordless authentication?  We’re glad you asked.  Here are some of the top reasons we hear often about what makes Axiad unique in the market:

Delivering a Holistic Approach to Authentication

Internal IT complexity often serves as a roadblock on the path to passwordless.  A majority of organizations leverage numerous authentication methods, have multiple identity types to protect (e.g., user and machine), must support a wide range of use cases (e.g., Windows/Mac/Linux environments), and may already have existing investments in identity and access management (IAM) systems they don’t want to rip and replace.  This disjointed reality can create gaps and inconsistencies that can be exploited.

Axiad helps customers shift from a fragmented to a holistic approach for authentication.  By delivering a complete solution, Axiad helps organizations systematically authenticate across all users, machines, and interactions, regardless of underlying IT complexity.  This integrated approach helps organizations become more secure and also drives operational efficiencies including streamlining administration and empowering users.

Providing a No-Password Passwordless Solution

Not all passwordless solutions are the same.  Many passwordless solutions (61 percent) actually require a password of other shared secret.  These solutions typically hide (or mask) the secret from the end user to deliver a passwordless experience.  But behind the scenes, the shared secret is still there.  By storing this information, you leave those secrets open to compromise.

In contrast to a passwordless experience, Axiad delivers a “no password” passwordless environment where there are no shared secrets.  With nothing to remember, there’s nothing that can be shared, lost, or phished out of users.  And importantly, Axiad provides phishing-resistant authentication and ensures that employees and all users have access to what they need when they need it.

Enabling a Phishing-Resistant Model

In a recent survey, one out of every two senior security and IT executives said that becoming more phishing resistant was their top cybersecurity priority for 2023.  In a 2022 Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) report, it was reported that 59 percent of organizations had been targeted by a phishing attack in the last year.  In another report from Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), it was noted that these types of attacks had been 80 percent effective in their testing.

Axiad again solves the problem in a variety of ways.  One option, called Certificate-Based Authentication (CBA), uses a strong token such as a smart card or hardware device for authentication.  This approach, which delivers a more secure, phishing-resistant form of MFA, often can be seamlessly integrated with your current IAM system(s) to supplement what you already have in place.

Having Strong Customer Testimonials

And of course, becoming a market leader requires having great customers that attain great value from what you have to sell.  In addition to the individual customer reviews you can read on Axiad’s passwordless solution, Axiad Cloud, we recently commissioned a report leveraging real-world insights from some of the top strategists and practitioners in the world on this very topic.  The input of senior IT and security executives was aggregated to deliver best practices for improving identity security in a report called Rethinking Enterprise Authentication.  Click here to read this report.

In this report, customers talked about key elements in contemporary authentication programs, and cited some critical things to look for like thinking holistically, integrating with multiple tools and IAM ecosystems, focusing on automation, and balancing security with usability.

This unique combination of delivering a holistic solution – what we call Organization-Wide Passwordless Orchestration – plus providing phishing resistance and enabling a no-password passwordless solution helps set Axiad apart.  But one of the driving forces we are most proud of is the value we present to customers.  In fact, this attribute is such a core part of our identity that we based our name on the ancient Greek word (Axia) for value.  That’s perhaps the most-important reason we are considered a leader in the space.