Identify Management Solutions

Findings of the research

The major findings can be summarized as follows:

* 61.5% of organizations surveyed have an Identity Management infrastructure in place. An Identity Management infrastructure has been categorized as having implemented at least three components: Directory Services, Authentication and Authorization process.

* Among the components of IDM, the percentage applications is as follows:

Directory Services 69.2%

Authentication Policy 92.3%

Authorization Policy 73%

Single Sign on 34.6%

* Among firms that have deployed Directory Services, the functions of Directory Services being implemented as a percentage of the organizations:

White Pages 44.44%

IT Provisioning 66.66%

Employee Comm. / Decomm 61.11%

Desktop & Device Mgmt. 83.33%

Directory enabled N/w / QOS 94.44%

Authorization & Access 66.66%

Database Inf. Aggregation 61.11%

Synchronization of email 22.22%

* For Authorization Systems, the processes used are as follows:

Centralized 62.5%

Web based 37.5%

* On a rating scale of 5, the major drivers for implementing IDM, as per organizations are summarized by their mean values:

1: Not Imp. 2: Slightly Imp. 3: Imp. 4: Very Imp. 5: Absolutely Imp.

User Friendliness 3.66

Enhanced Security 3.61

Lower Admin & Security Cost 2.61

Access to more Resources/Services 2.16

* On a rating scale of 5, the mean value for the level of deployment and supporting IDM systems comes out to be:

1: Easy 2: Avg. 3: Difficult 4: Very Difficult 5: Impossible

Level of deployment and support 2.5

* On a rating scale of 5, the mean values for the experience of working with different IDM components:

1: Poor 2: Below Avg. 3: Avg. 4: Above Avg. 5: Excellent

Experience of working with Directory Services 4.18

Experience of synch. of Data b/w systems 3.35

Experience of synch. of passwords b/w systems 3.76

Experience with Single Sign on 4.33

Conclusion.

The findings of the research can provide a useful insight to vendors dealing in IDM solutions. Firstly, that only 69.8% of the organizations surveyed had deployed an IDM infrastructure. Although the IDM solutions can be extended across any organization and any sector, keeping in view the sector of research consideration, there still seems to be a huge market opportunity for IDM solutions.

Also, among Directory services the major functions enabled have been Desktop and Device management as well as Directory enabled Networking/QOS. The vendors may lay more emphasis on these parameters during marketing of their products since the survey indicates that these are the most implemented functions of Directory Services.

Also, the findings of the research indicate that the major drivers for an organization adopting an IDM infrastructure are Enhanced User friendliness and Enhanced Security. The vendors of IDM solutions may thus focus on these parameters while preparing a communication strategy so as to generate a need and interest in IDM solutions.

The research shows that the deployment and support process has been rated by most organizations as between average and difficult. The vendors might take steps to make the deployment process simpler and smoother and may also provide additional training and information for a better client experience.

According to the research, most organizations have rated the experience of working with the different IDM components between average and excellent. This is a positive response but there is still room to understand user requirements better to make the experience truly excellent.

All the above points may provide a ground for the foundation of different hypothesis which might warrant further research and also explore further relationships.

Bibliography

* www.aarnet.edu.au/engineering/ middleware/id_access_mgt_survey.html

* www.educause.edu/2005CurrentIssuesResources/6323

* www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_qa4137/is_200411/ai_n9470274

* www.birds-eye.net/definition/ i/iam-identity_and_access_management.shtml

* www3.ca.com/solutions/CollateralList. aspx?CCT=19505&ID=271

* www.oracle.com/products/middleware/ identitymanagement/docs/oracle_app_server_04_05.pdf

* www.microsoft.com/technet/security/topics/identitymanagement/idmanage/default.msp

* www.novell.com/solutions/identityandaccess/

* www.managementsoftware.hp.com/news/iamgmt.html - 20k

* www.networkworld.com/topics/identity-management.html

* www.bitpipe.com/tlist/Identity-Management.html