Ory CIAM is a Customer Identity and Access Management platform designed to handle authentication and authorization for customer-facing applications. The platform provides identity management capabilities through multiple components including Ory Hydra (OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect certified server), Ory Kratos (user management system), Ory Polis (SAML to OpenID Connect bridge with Directory Sync), Ory Oathkeeper (Identity and Access Proxy), and Ory Keto (authorization server based on Google Zanzibar). The platform supports multiple authentication methods including social logins, passkeys, passwordless authentication, WebAuthn, SSO, and multi-factor authentication. It uses a headless, API-first architecture that decouples the UI from the backend to provide flexibility across different platforms. Ory CIAM offers deployment flexibility with three options: open source self-hosted deployment, Ory Enterprise License (OEL) for self-hosted production environments, and Ory Network as a managed SaaS solution. The platform includes global database replication for multi-region deployments to maintain data consistency across regions. The system is designed to handle large-scale implementations, with documented use cases supporting hundreds of millions of active users. It provides customizable authentication flows and includes user telemetry capabilities. The platform addresses compliance requirements through its multi-region infrastructure and data privacy features.