When, and When Not, to Adopt Passkeys as an Enterprise Authentication Solution

This IDC Perspective offers a balanced assessment of passkeys within the enterprise. Passkeys are an innovative solution that compared with passwords, are more secure and more user-friendly in some ways. However, passkeys are not flawless - especially in their current state, where fragmented vendor ecosystems, the susceptibility of passkey access codes to being hacked, and the lack of enterprise readiness for passkey implementation mean that the drawbacks of passkeys outweigh the benefits in some cases.For that reason, enterprises considering making passkeys a part of their authentication strategy must look beyond the hype and carefully evaluate the pros and cons of adopting passkeys. "Whether enterprise passkey adoption makes sense at present depends on factors specific to each organization, such as which identity management and authentication service or services it uses and how its users typically connect to enterprise resources," says Christopher Tozzi, adjunct research advisor for IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP).