Why CIO’s Should Consider “Scale Out IDM”
“Do you know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time! In our world, Identity Management can be your own personal, “Elephant pour le dîner.” Pardon my French. According to my Google translate, that is “Elephant for Dinner.” Scale out IDM techniques will basically allow you to eat your pachyderm, one bite at a time, giving you a fighting chance at success.
When IDM works, the CIO is a hero, but when it fails, there tends to be new stationary printed for the new CIO, and if the deprovisioning system is working, a quick demonstration on how important it is to have IDM in place to revoke credentials. The sad part is the problem typically isn’t the fault of the “technology” so much as the methodology.
With stakes this high, it’s time to take a look at new strategies to help ensure a certain level of success. The following are some simple reasons why CIO’s should consider “scale out IDM”, a basic modular approach to Identity Management.
The Modular Approach (Scale Out IDM)
A modular approach is simply taking a few steps in the planning stage to identity what your business process goals are specifically, and then tactically implementing bite sized “modular” deployments to fit that targeted end state goal. Here at Directory Services we call it “Scale Out IDM”. With Scale out IDM, you end up with a series of small successes that can be deployed within budget cycles. This is more than simply buying (insert Gartner Magic Quadrant Identity Manager Suite here), and installing it in bits. To properly implement Scale Out IDM, you need to embrace the idea of reducing your risk of obsolescence by using platforms that support SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). Since the idea of SOA is simply a collection of services that can communicate and interoperate based on generally accepted standards, this makes the idea of “scale out IDM” a reality.
The Fall of the “Big Bang” Approach
In a “big bang” deployment that most large IDM suite vendors like, you are talked into purchasing a full IDM platform and rolling out a huge strategy over the course of years. Your IDM budget is blown out the first year, with no realization of success for a long period of time. This approach is kind of like betting on a horse that will not finish the race for 3 – 5 years. You put your money down, but you don’t know if you’ve won for a very long time.
With a modular Scale Out approach, your successes are quicker and smaller. Your implementation costs are less expensive, and easier to deploy. By using SOA based IDM solutions like GreyTower Identity Integration, you can leverage cheaper more readily available skill sets like Java to administrate, and you can consider adding identity services into your ESB deployment such as MuleESB.
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Author, Marc potter
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