http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/kearns.html The complete Network World opus of Dave Kearns. Network World, Inc. Copyright(C) 1994 - 2009 Network World, Inc. http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/110909id2.html Last week I put in a brief appearance at the Gartner Group's Identity and Access Management Summit in San Diego. This is a conference I've had few good things to say about in the past (and which Gartner Vice President Ray Wagner reminded me about this time) but it does serve a useful purpose. The conference content is geared towards its attendees who aren't necessarily IdM geeks or even security wonks. It attracts a more business-side oriented clientele and these are people who need to learn about IdM/IAM even if they have to be spoon-fed. Dave Kearns 2009-11-10T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/110909id1.html Context is important. I know I say that a lot, but I'll keep saying it until you all agree. That is to say, you're entitled to your own opinion but if your opinion is that context isn't important then your opinion is just wrong. To clarify for those of you new to this argument, context refers to the who, what, when, where, why and how of a transaction, in particular an identity-based transaction. Knowing those things greatly reduces the chances of fraud, mitigating the risk involved in the transaction. Dave Kearns 2009-11-06T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/110209id2.html Centrify announced last week that it has added Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition to the long list of non-Windows operating systems whose authentication it has integrated with Active Directory. It has supported Ubuntu for quite some time, but what really exited the Centrify folk was the fact that this version of Ubuntu includes an open source cloud computing environment that can be easily integrated with Active Directory through the Centrify Suite for identity, access and privilege management. Dave Kearns 2009-11-03T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/110209id1.html Over the years -- even going back to the Wired Windows column, the Windows Networking newsletter and the Novell newsletter -- a constant recurring theme has been justification of the costs of IT and IdM projects. No matter if it was a NOS upgrade, desktop management applications, directory services or the latest entitlement management service -- it's been a constant fight for scarce dollars with little in the way of bean counter-approved justification (i.e., profit-making ROI). Dave Kearns 2009-10-29T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/102609id2.html A couple of notes I read last week seemed to go together so nicely that I thought I'd share hem with you in hopes of stimulating your own thought processes. One came from a discussion of the LinkedIn cloud computing group while the other was a blog post by old friend Martin Kuppinger. Dave Kearns 2009-10-27T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/102609id1.html Chris Sullivan, Courion's vice president of customer solutions, recently posted a blog entry about risk management. In it he quotes Warren Buffett, the world's richest man and undisputed king of practical risk management who once said, "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing." Dave Kearns 2009-10-23T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/101909id2.html I didn't go to Oracle Open World last week even though it happened just 45 miles from my office. While Oracle is very important in the IdM space, IdM isn't quite as important in the Oracle client-space -- there are a lot more people interested in the database, the financial applications, the ERP and so on. Still, there were announcements that are important to us so I would be remiss in overlooking them. Dave Kearns 2009-10-20T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/101909id1.html It's October, time (in the Northern Hemisphere) for apples, cider and hay rides. It's also time for Halloween and Gartner Magic Quadrants (MQ). Not sure which is scarier! Dave Kearns 2009-10-16T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/101209id2.html In this issue I'd like to take a look back 10 years -- to the October 1999 issues of this newsletter's predecessor, Network World Fusion Focus on Directory Services. The majority of those issues were concerned with the upcoming release of Active Directory as part of Windows Server 2000, but to me, the interesting thing is to look at the companies that were mentioned. Dave Kearns 2009-10-13T12:00:00-04:00 http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2009/101209id1.html When Bob Blakley talks, I listen. Blakley is vice president and research director for the Burton Group's Identity and Privacy Strategies. Before that he was chief scientist for security and privacy at IBM. He rarely speaks about identity and security issues without weighing all of the possibilities and coming to a reasoned conclusion. So when he says that an analyst from another organization is “dead wrong” you can bet he'll back it up with an elegant argument. Dave Kearns 2009-10-09T12:00:00-04:00