As digital transformation reshapes the enterprise landscape, the gravity of business operations is inexorably shifting toward the cloud, compelling legacy software providers to reinvent themselves or face irrelevance. For companies in the critical field of identity and access management (IAM), this transition is not merely an option but a mandate for survival. In a decisive move to navigate this paradigm shift, One Identity has appointed veteran technology leader Gihan Munasinghe as its new Chief Technology Officer, signaling a strategic acceleration of its commitment to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) future. This leadership change underscores a pivotal moment for the company as it seeks to fortify its market position by aligning its engineering and product strategy with the evolving demands of a cloud-first world.
Navigating the Race to the Cloud
The market’s message is clear: customers increasingly favor the agility and scalability of fully managed, cloud-native security solutions over traditional on-premises software. This demand is driven by a need to reduce operational overhead, ensure continuous updates, and deploy security controls that can keep pace with dynamic, hybrid environments. The era of lengthy deployment cycles and complex infrastructure management is giving way to a new expectation of immediate value and seamless integration, forcing established IAM vendors to fundamentally rethink their delivery models.
Beyond the buzzwords of cloud transformation, this shift reflects core enterprise needs for reliability, security, and ease of consumption. Modern businesses require IAM platforms that are not only powerful but also intuitive and resilient, capable of protecting assets across a distributed ecosystem without creating friction for users. Consequently, the challenge for companies like One Identity is to evolve their offerings from robust but often complex tools into streamlined, service-oriented platforms that deliver security as a utility.
This context frames the appointment of a new CTO as a direct and strategic response to future-proofing identity security. The leadership change is more than a personnel update; it is an organizational pivot designed to infuse the company with the engineering DNA required to build, operate, and scale a world-class SaaS portfolio. By bringing in a leader with a proven track record in modernization, One Identity is positioning itself to meet the sophisticated demands of customers navigating their own complex journeys to the cloud.
A New Architect for a Cloud-First Future
At the helm of this transformation is Gihan Munasinghe, a leader whose career spans over 15 years in scaling engineering teams and modernizing complex enterprise systems. His background is a blueprint for the task at hand, marked by successes in transforming legacy software architectures into agile, cloud-native platforms. This experience is critical for One Identity as it balances the maintenance of its established products with the aggressive development of its next-generation SaaS offerings.
As CTO, Munasinghe’s mandate is comprehensive. He will lead the global engineering organization, charting a new technology roadmap that prioritizes innovation and operational excellence. This role involves not only directing the development of new products but also re-engineering the culture and processes that support them, fostering an environment geared toward the high-velocity demands of a service-based model.
His primary objective is to accelerate the transition to a SaaS-centric delivery model across the entire product portfolio. This initiative is designed to deliver customer-focused platforms that embody the core tenets of modern software: scalability, resilience, and rapid innovation. The goal is to ensure that One Identity’s solutions meet the evolving security, operational, and deployment needs of enterprises today and in the future.
Voices from the Top on Strategic Direction
The strategic intent behind this appointment was articulated by CEO Praerit Garg, who emphasized Munasinghe’s unique qualifications for the role. Garg highlighted his blend of deep technical expertise and rigorous operational discipline as essential for advancing the company’s SaaS vision while continuing to innovate on the core platforms trusted by thousands of customers. This dual focus is central to the company’s strategy of evolving without abandoning its foundational strengths.
Echoing this sentiment, Gihan Munasinghe centered his perspective on evolving customer expectations. He noted that in the current market, innovation alone is insufficient; modern products must be inherently reliable, secure, and simple to use. His vision involves building an engineering culture that obsesses over these fundamentals, ensuring that every product release enhances both functionality and the end-user experience.
Together, these perspectives reveal a unified goal: to strengthen the products that customers rely on today while simultaneously building the next generation of IAM solutions. The leadership is committed to delivering the quality, scale, and velocity required for a SaaS-first future, ensuring that One Identity remains a leader in the identity security market for years to come.
The Playbook for Winning the SaaS Transition
Executing this vision requires a multi-faceted strategic playbook, beginning with the modernization of the engineering culture. A key pillar of Munasinghe’s strategy is to foster a high-performance organization focused on the complete lifecycle of a SaaS product—from building and operating to scaling. This cultural shift is essential for moving from a traditional software release cadence to a model of continuous delivery and improvement.
This cultural evolution is paired with a redefinition of the product roadmap. The new agenda prioritizes the development of resilient, customer-focused platforms architected for rapid innovation and scalability. Instead of monolithic applications, the focus will be on creating flexible, service-oriented architectures that allow for faster feature deployment and easier integration, enabling the company to respond more dynamically to market changes and customer feedback.
Ultimately, One Identity is executing a dual-pronged strategy designed to balance future growth with current commitments. The plan involves aggressively advancing the new SaaS model to capture emerging market opportunities while dedicating resources to the continued innovation of the core platforms that form the bedrock of its business. This balanced approach is intended to ensure a smooth transition for existing customers while positioning the company for long-term success in the cloud era.
Forging a New Chapter in Identity Security
With this strategic appointment, One Identity signaled its commitment not just to participating in the SaaS transition but to leading it. The combination of a clear market mandate, experienced leadership, and a well-defined strategic playbook provided the company with a strong foundation for its next phase of growth. The success of this initiative depended on a deep-seated cultural transformation within its engineering ranks and an unwavering focus on customer-centric design.
The journey toward a SaaS-first model was recognized as a complex undertaking, requiring a delicate balance between innovating for the future and supporting the present. By placing a proven architect of modernization at the helm, One Identity invested in its capacity to navigate this challenge effectively. The moves made in the wake of this change were instrumental in shaping the future of identity security and determined whether the company could successfully redefine its legacy in the cloud.
