* The problems and search for answers are the same in Europe as in the U.S.
It’s the nature of global communications that a) I hear about IdM projects worldwide almost daily, but b) talking to the people behind the projects usually requires either I travel to them or they travel to the United States. The nine-hour time difference between here and Europe, for example, means that I would be on the phone at 7 a.m. (not a pretty sight at all) or my European contact would be on the phone at 10 p.m. (usually from a noisy “watering hole”). Neither is conducive to good conversation.
So it was a pleasant surprise when I recently caught up with Chris Merritt, the partnership manager for Engiweb Security . Merritt is an American, working for an Italian company, who happened to be in Germany at the time for a trade show. That made it possible for him to talk to me before he went to dinner but after I had my coffee!
I wanted to find out what was important to IdM customers in the EMEA region, and where (and if) it differed from the wishes, wants and needs of North American clients. As it turns out, Chris reassured me that we’re all facing the same problems and looking for the same answers. In particular he noted that, in Europe:
* Role management is becoming more important, but more as a tool for other uses (entitlements, for example) rather than in and of itself.
* Automation, and its cost savings and better security, are very important.
* Separation of duties (also dependent on roles) is a high priority.
* Risk evaluation, risk management and risk mitigation are at the top of everyone’s list.
Roles, in Merritt’s words, are a “building block” or tool that enable (or make easier) many of the other things we want to do.
One final note is that Merritt thinks suites of modules from a single vendor are preferable to cobbling together a “best of breed” collection. He thinks that the “value is in the interplay of modules. The whole is really greater than the sum of the parts.” I guess the discussion of the correct approach will continue.
Last issue I promised to tell you about interesting applets using Kynetx tools in interesting ways. Less than an hour after the newsletter hit my inbox I heard from Michael Grace about a quick-and-dirty browser addition he’d done. See “Geek and Poke meet Kynetx” for the details.
