* Imanami moves and meshes identity data for Windows networks
I tripped over a new company while visiting Digital ID World in San Francisco, last week. Actually, Imanami isn’t all that new, it’s been around since 2001 and founder Robert Haaverson has been doing much the same thing for even longer. What is that “thing”? Nowadays it’s called “identity management” but to Haaverson (ably assisted by Vice President of Business Development Sean Schantz) it’s not some monolithic structure, but a series of discreet steps, each a worthy goal in itself, which can be combined (or not, your choice) into a fully managed identity environment.
I tripped over a new company while visiting Digital ID World in San Francisco, last week. Actually, Imanami isn’t all that new, it’s been around since 2001 and founder Robert Haaverson has been doing much the same thing for even longer. What is that “thing”? Nowadays it’s called “identity management” but to Haaverson (ably assisted by Vice President of Business Development Sean Schantz) it’s not some monolithic structure, but a series of discrete steps, each a worthy goal in itself, which can be combined (or not, your choice) into a fully managed identity environment.
Imanami concentrates on Windows, reflecting its long experience with identity in an Active Directory/Microsoft Exchange environment. Moving and meshing identity data for real networks both large and small gave Haaverson an insight into how project design and scope can doom a project from the start. (Imanami’s clients include Kraft Foods, Texas A&M, Hershey’s Chocolate, Panasonic and Tom’s of Maine.) He believes timelines could kill your project.
The typical “big” identity management project, according to Haaverson requires these steps:
1) Gather requirements (3-6 weeks).http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/2004/0119id2.html]
2) Discover data (3-4 weeks).
3) Discover owners of the data (1 week).
4) Map data flow of attributes (3-10 weeks).
5) Design provisioning architecture and workflow (3-10 weeks).
6) Get internal approvals (4 weeks – 14 months!) [Find that hard to believe? See “The Politics of identity projects”-
7) Testing (2-8 weeks).
8) Find more data sources during testing, go back to step 1.
9) Implementation (2-3 weeks).
That’s 12-18 months from start until you can begin to see a return on investment. In today’s economic climate, that simply won’t work.
Imanami’s goal is to help you deliver simple, but powerful, point solutions with quicker ROI. Each successful point solution leads to increased confidence to go for the next one. It will still take 18 months or so to complete the over-arching project, but by having multiple small successes every step along the way you get the benefit of positive feedback throughout the process.
This is a methodology that I’ve long preached and one that Imanami has long practiced. It’s something you should consider, also. Microsoft (with both Windows Server 2003 R2 and Longhorn) will be making major new thrusts into the identity management arena – best to be prepared to ride that wave.
