Analyst Chat #309: Fabrics Deep Dive II - the Identity Fabric as the Blueprint

The Identity Fabric isn't just a concept, it's a working tool that KuppingerCole Analysts advisors use every day with clients. In this second episode of the fabric mini-series, Matthias sits down with Martin Kuppinger and Phillip Messerschmidt to explore how the Identity Fabric and Reference Architecture are applied in real client engagements, why capability-based thinking beats tool-centric thinking every time, and how the fabric evolves to stay relevant in a world of constant buzzwords.

Key Topics:

✅ How the Identity Fabric is used in practice: maturity assessments, gap analyses, roadmaps, and tool selection
✅ Why the right order always goes capabilities → services → tools — never the other way around
✅ What happens when tools are used for things they were never meant to do
✅ Why organizing teams around capabilities — not tools — is the future of IT operations
✅ The Identity Fabric built for 2040: long-term thinking in a fast-moving market
✅ How the fabric absorbs buzzwords like IVIP, ISPM, and ITDR — and why that proves the concept

🧵 "Every second day someone comes up with a new buzzword, the Identity Fabric helps you strip it down to capabilities and ask: is there really something new here?" Martin Kuppinger on why structured thinking beats buzzword bingo.

📅 This is episode two of KuppingerCole Analysts' fabric mini-series, the Cybersecurity Fabric and AI Security Fabric episodes are coming next. Subscribe so you don't miss them.