More on IdM's Biz Prowess

Just read this article by John Oltsik, who is Sr. Analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group - who attended DIDW this past week and gives a series of points why Idenity "finally made it." Point 2 states:

Projects are getting bigger. When identity and access management tools were deployed in the past it was generally on a tactical basis to address IT operations challenges. Suddenly, projects have a more business and enterprise focus. I attribute the change to compliance on the one hand and the externalization of IT on the other. This means that customers are looking at large identity deployments, big investments, and professional services. There's gold in them thar identity hills.

Another nod to the maturation of IdM in the business world...although I don't agree with the "sudden" business and enterprise focus. It took alot of DIDW and Burton Group conferences to get here. There are many indicators that there is a market for business consulting services for identity projects. All we need now is new acronym for this "new" field...

[update]

Another interesting quote... I'm starting to collect the "as a CEO...as a CIO...as a CXO..." quotes about identity:

“As a CIO, I strive to ensure productive, secure, cost effective solutions that help our users realize their potential. Identity and Access Management is the foundation for any solution that I provide to our users.” - Ron Markezich, CIO, Microsoft

Jamie Lewis' Keynote at DIDW and IdM Services

Phil Windley has a pretty lengthy post recapping Jamie Lewis' keynote at DIDW this year. He has some pics of some of Jamie's slides as well. (I always enjoy Jamie's 'status of the market' type slides...take a look at this one.) The interesting part was the claim that the market is moving from suites to services. I'm not sure I sense that in the market at all. Being on the floor, I haven't seen many - if any - IdM services being deployed. I have seen tons of traditional suite-type implementations. Each vendor is, of course, pushing hard to have their stack to be adopted and implemented, and usually with some level of success. Phil wraps this point up well (emphasis mine):

When we get to the point where there are services we can reuse, then we will see progress. There’s reason for hope. Emerging frameworks, like CardSpace, OSIS, Higgins, and Bandit promise to create an access layer.

Identity Management's Business Prowess

It's refreshing to see the strength of the Identity market in the following excerpts. The first is an analysis on Oracle stock by Rob Black. The second is a quote from Sun's CEO, Jonathan Schwartz:

Rob Black submits: Expect an in-line Oracle (ORCL) quarter in a historically difficult period. Expect to see growth from all product segments across all geographies, with better contribution from Europe than reported in recent periods. Analysts believe Fusion Middleware focus and growth will continue for the foreseeable future, highlighted by strength in Identity Management opportunities. Analysts are increasing our price target for ORCL to $19 from $17 based on our revised DCF, which includes a reduced discount rate (due to reduced risk free rate) and increased confidence in a more promising cash flow growth scenario.

Growth to Oracle is ultimately attributed to Identity. Now that is pretty big stuff. The entire company stock is expected to go from 17 to 19 ultimately driven by an upswing in identity sales. Just to put this into perspective, this is a company that could bankroll buying Peoplesoft at $10B and Siebel at almost $6B. In the past year or so, it has picked up some dinosaurs in the Identity world: Octetstring, Thor and Oblix.
The second quote is from Sun CEO:

"As a CEO, nothing is more important to me than security and identity management," Schwartz said. "It's the heart of SOX, HIPAA and other regulations across the world. Who has access to what information often closely relates to who pays for that information and who's liable for that information."

That's a wonderful shout-out for identity. Given that the quote was taken in an interview Schwartz gave in relation to Sun's tight relationship with Accenture (and how they really need Accenture as a consulting arm to compete with IBMs Global Services division) - nonetheless - I'll take it! If that were the case, it would speak to the strength of the services market for Identity - which in turn speaks to the software market as well. Either way, it's a good sign for things to come.

Google's Got Ears!

Google's latest addition is a pair of ears. Perhaps more than a pair...according to this article, Google is aggressively working on software that would leverage your computer's microphone to eavesdrop on you, and play back relevant ads:

The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that's adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject.

Am I the only who's getting scared? What's next? They already log your searches, follow your blog (I use Blogger), they track the sites you visit via adwords, the email you write via gmail, etc. and now they want to be a fly (with ears) on the wall in your home! And the sad fact is that most people won't have a problem with it, in the interest of having a more intimate experience on the net. But at what cost? Can't we have our cake and eat it too? Can't we have the personalized experience we desire on the net without revealing every detail of our lives? Absolutely - from a technical perspective. The best minds in the identity world have put together a number of theoretically feasible solutions, unfortunately dollars drive advertising over security and anonymity. I think we'll get there some day, but not before our homes are invaded by Google and their likes.


Technorati tags: Identity Management, Google