Traditionally, Identity and Access Management has been a very large complex implementation that required a CIO to choose a platform for the duration of the entire implementation. You may find choose from some very good products like Novell identity Manager, Oracle Identity Manager, CA Identity Manager, and may others. This served its purpose at the time, and the benefits were well documented.

Recently, with the new economy and the evolution of business systems and requirements, this strategy, we will refer to as the "Big Bang" IDM strategy has, in many cases created a "living project". A Living Project is one that never really seems to find its completion. That is where scale out IDM comes in.

Scale Out IDM is a strategy where Identity practices are put in play to allow for a more agile and flexible deployment, that is more modular and purposed. It may or may not include more than one platform, and has with it some best practices such as SOA, Identity Integration and Consolidation, and the removal of mixed dependencies that come with Point to Point / Hub and Spoke Models.

Service Orented Architecture (SOA)is based on the foundation of standards. Some Identity Manager platforms have SOA capabilities, and others not so much. In Scale Out IDM, SOA is extremely important because it must remain flexible and extendable. If an IDM vendor doesn't allow for SOA, you will have a vendor locked deployment.

Since Identity Management deployments can be complex, and have have the ability to become a "living project", this adds some risk to choosing an Identity Management Platform. Many times, a CIO will ask for a simple win to bring to the board of directors to prove it works (and protect their credibility), often with varying results. This is where the burning need for success comes to play.

A scale out identity management deployment helps minimize risk, and provide the series of wins necessary to keep all the key players happy. This is because Scale Out IDM is done in a modular and purposed way.

When initiating a scale out IDM strategy, you will need a platform that provides the ability to do these simple things:

• SOA based
• Open Integration capable of connecting to virtually any other system.
• Provides ability to deploy in independent purpose based modules
• Can work alone or with any other platform to extend the life-cycle of a current and working deployment.

These features are referred to as Identity integration and consolidation features. At Directory Services, Inc., we have taken these strategies and built them into our vision for the future of Identity Management.

GreyTower Identity Integration by Directory Services, Inc. is a Scale Out IDM product that can support this, and several other IDM strategies. GreyTower is an SOA based to provide a flexible, scalable heterogeneous platform that can work with all the major tier one vendors.

To learn more, contact us at 800-403-8041x option 1, or call your local representative.