Sailpoint execs explain how big isn't necessarily better in IdM companies
We’re almost to the end of 2010 – how time does fly, especially as we get older. So over the next few weeks we’ll gaze into the crystal ball to see if we can glean what’s coming in the new year. I’ll hold off on my own prognostications, but a slew of industry insiders and knowledgeable readers have stepped up to provide grist for the identity mill.
We’ll start off the look ahead with some old friends from Austin, Sailpoint‘s Mark McClain (CEO) and Kevin Cunningham (President).
Also read: Ultimate endpoint management tools
Mark leads off by opining: “I think 2011 will be the year that independent, best-of-breed vendors dominate the IdM market.” Of course, that’s coming from the CEO of an “independent, best-of-breed vendor!” But Mark backs up this forecast:
“More and more clients are choosing agile companies that can rapidly innovate and respond to changing market requirements. By comparison, the larger suite vendors are focused on integrating the products they’ve acquired over the years and are way behind the curve on innovation. As 2010 has shown, clients cannot make a ‘viability judgment’ based simply on vendor size – just look at what’s happened to Sun and Novell. My prediction is that small independent vendors – at least the healthy ones – will thrive in the 2011 identity management market and will be seen as refreshing alternatives to the combinations of products from large vendors. (I won’t give them the moniker of ‘suites’ because they’re really just a collection of unrelated technologies in most cases).”
Cunningham adds, in a more traditional mode: “In 2011, the industry will finally recognize the value of the formal separation between provisioning infrastructure and identity governance. I see more and more SailPoint customers rallying around the wisdom of segmenting the business process and policy layer from the plumbing infrastructure, and the industry analysts are echoing the same sentiment.”
Kevin adds: “I believe that next year the industry will see major security breaches targeting cloud computing environments. Amid all the cloud hype, some early adopters have moved some of their applications to the cloud to save money, but they haven’t necessarily fully considered key governance issues which could leave them exposed. As compliance-relevant applications begin to move to cloud environments, companies need assurance that the proper mechanisms are in place to control ‘who has access to what.'”
I’ll be saving these predictions, by the way, to check their accuracy at the end of next year, especially this surprising note from McClain: “As much as people like to speculate about further consolidation in the security market, I predict we will see more independent vendors and a broader range of solution choices as this market shifts into high gear next year.”
Let me know how you feel about that!
