Options shrink for ID management

End users and vendors are evaluating their identity management efforts as the long-anticipated convergence of provisioning and access management software matures.

Experts have said for years that the two technologies make sense together: They provide the ability to automatically create identities using provisioning software and then use those identities to secure resources through access management software.

In the past, many vendors created alliances to tie together their products on certain platforms, such as Windows. Now there is a race among major vendors and upstarts to create suites of identity management products.

In the past two months, Sun bought provisioning vendor Waveset Technologies for an undisclosed amount to round out its identity platform, and Netegrity spent $44 million to buy provisioning provider Business Layers to complement its access management software.

The consolidation is happening under the banner of identity management, which ties together authentication, directory services, provisioning, and user- and access-management technology.

Identity management lets companies reduce user management costs, increase security, ensure privacy and comply with federal regulations.

While those concepts are well understood, convergence is forcing corporate users to re-examine their software providers and their strategic plans.

"Initially, we weren't real happy that Sun bought Waveset," says Larry Burtt, desktop services group leader for Guidant, which designs and develops cardiovascular medical devices and is based in Indianapolis. "But after conversations with Waveset, we are more comfortable. We'll stay with the Waveset tools provided they still have a focus on Active Directory."

That is because Guidant is committed to Microsoft's Active Directory, which is one user repository that Waveset's Lighthouse can use.

"We are an Active Directory shop, and if [buying Waveset] is a move by Sun to counter Microsoft we would be disappointed," Burtt says. Sun has its own directory service that is part of its identity software suite, but Guidant has no plans to replace Active Directory.

Burtt says he thinks emerging identity standards, such as the Security Assertion Markup Language and the Service Provisioning Markup Language eventually will provide flexibility for his decision-making.

He says consolidation will do some good overall by driving the technology forward faster than independent vendors can do it. But there are fewer and fewer of those independents.

Last year, HP bought access management software from Baltimore Technologies, IBM began tightly integrating identity products from companies it acquired two years ago, and Oracle introduced its Identity Management platform including a directory and services for provisioning, authentication and authorization.

Microsoft and Novell have renamed and tweaked their metadirectory technology to focus more on provisioning as part of their bids to offer identity management suites.