Officials from Waveset and Sun are probably spending the Thanksgiving celebrations here in the U.S. by giving thanks to their companies' planned merger, which was announced last week. Well, maybe "merger" is a bit strong - Sun is acquiring Waveset (the deal should close by year-end). It's a great deal for Sun and a necessary one for Waveset.

Sun has been involved in the identity business for quite some time, but there has been a great deal of fluidity (such as the various name changes to its identity products over the years - from iPlanet through Sun ONE on to Java Enterprise Identity, etc.).

The one gaping hole in Sun's identity offerings - which otherwise are very complete - was electronic provisioning. Not that Sun wasn't involved in that space - it had (and, presumably still has) technology partnerships with Business Layers, Thor Technologies, Oblix and almost every other company offering a provisioning solution (except, of course, Novell and IBM-Tivoli).

Novell maintains its homegrown electronic provisioning solution (while still partnering its eDirectory with other e-provisioning vendor products). IBM-Tivoli acquired e-provisioning heavyweight Access360 a little over a year ago and appears to have integrated it fairly well with the rest of its identity products and services. Microsoft just recently announced its own e-provisioning initiative, although implementation details are still rather sketchy.

Waveset rose to the top of the heap, according to many observers, with little room to grow without the backing of a major player in the Fortune 100 space. It partnered with Sun and evidently the courtship went so well both companies decided to "forsake all others" and tie the knot.

IBM and Novell had no comment on the move, but Waveset competitors Business Layers, Thor and Oblix did at least make statements.

Trying to put the best possible spin on the move, Thor's CEO, Alberto Yepez, claims that not only does the merger validate the importance of e-provisioning but that it also reduces the competition for customers who desire a "best of breed" (rather than a single vendor) solution for their identity needs. Yepez points to his company's partnership with RSA and Accenture as offering a best of breed solution, which Sun might have difficulty challenging. 

Dave Kearns is a consultant and editor of IdM, the Journal of Identity Management.