Rewriting IAM for the agentic era

“Identity has reached its TCP/IP moment. Supporting standards is no longer the differentiator, it's the experience you build on top is.” — Prabath Siriwardena

In this episode, Ravi talks with Prabath — identity evangelist, author of eight books, and the mind behind WSO2 Identity Server, about how identity has evolved from the days of credential sharing, to OAuth and OIDC becoming the backbone of modern apps, to today’s new challenge: making identity work for AI agents.

Here’s what we dig into:

• How we got from “share your password with us” to OAuth becoming the backbone of the internet.
• Why identity hit its TCP/IP moment—and why developer experience, not just standards, matters now.
• The tug-of-war between building vs. buying identity layers, and why object models often push teams in-house.
• How emerging pieces like SPIFFE, OPA, and UMA could shape the way agents and services authenticate.
• Why the future isn’t just CIAM or workforce IAM—it’s agent IAM, with new guardrails and patterns we haven’t fully figured out yet.

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