Grapevine, Texas – 9^th December, 2024 – EmpowerID today announced successful completion of AuthZEN 1.1 interoperability testing, affirming its commitment to open standards and cutting-edge Policy-Based Access Control (PBAC) methodologies.

Unveiled at this year’s Gartner IAM Conference, this achievement ensures that EmpowerID can serve as a vendor-agnostic, standards-aligned authorization component—plugging seamlessly into any mixed-vendor identity landscape.

What is AuthZEN?

AuthZEN is an emerging, open standard designed to ensure that the process of determining “who can do what” in digital systems is both interoperable and consistent—regardless of vendor, platform, or technology stack.

In practical terms, it standardizes how a system can ask: “Can this user take this action on this resource?” and ensures the PDP responds with a decision in a predictable format. This uniformity reduces friction in multi-vendor, multi-application environments where administrators typically deal with differing authorization models and integration methods.

Interop Testing and Results:

EmpowerID’s endpoint was tested against a series of requests that simulate common authorization patterns in an example “to-do” application scenario. The tests verified that EmpowerID’s PDP implementation could:

• Correctly evaluate read permissions for user profiles and to-do lists.
• Confirm whether a user can create, update, or delete tasks.
• Support role-based logic, differentiating capabilities between, for example, viewers, editors, and admins.
• Handle both individual authorization checks and batched (“evaluations”) requests, as specified by AuthZEN 1.1.

All of these checks returned a “PASS,” indicating that EmpowerID’s PDP could reliably process AuthZEN-compliant requests.

EmpowerID’s AuthZEN 1.1 Compliance: What It Means for Customers

Modern enterprises are shifting from traditional role-based models to more dynamic, attribute-driven PBAC approaches that can adapt to changing business contexts. By embracing AuthZEN 1.1, EmpowerID empowers organizations to:

• Reduced Complexity: A unified, standards-based approach simplifies integration with existing identity solutions, accelerating time-to-value.
• Consistent Policy Enforcement: Standardized policies minimize gaps in access control and maintain predictable authorization across diverse applications.
• Vendor-Agnostic Flexibility: By adhering to open standards, organizations can easily incorporate and switch out IAM components, preventing vendor lock-in.
• Future-Ready Adaptability: AuthZEN compliance ensures enterprises can readily adopt new tools and meet evolving business or regulatory demands without extensive rework.
• Improved Clarity for Users: With uniform authorization rules, users gain a clearer understanding of their permissions, enhancing overall user experience.

Next Steps

EmpowerID is a leader in converged Identity and Access Management (IAM), delivering a unified platform for provisioning, federation, and advanced policy-based access controls.

By embracing AuthZEN 1.1, EmpowerID helps organizations future-proof their identity and access management strategies. As the AuthZEN ecosystem expands, customers can expect smoother integrations, more flexible policy management, and the assurance that their chosen IAM platform aligns with established industry standards.

Tags: Agentic Workflow, IAM, Identity Management, Automation, Cybersecurity