Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Trouble with Brand-Name Products
This is probably one of the most controversial topics in this document, which
is why we have devoted a fair bit of effort to discussing it. We have arrived
at our architectural approach after exhausting the alternatives, so we are
very familiar with the pros and cons in this debate.
If your organisation is like most others, then the first thing you would do
after determining that you need an IAM system is to look for a good off-the-
shelf product. Many organisations have a practice of consulting the Gartner
Magic Quadrant
TM
or Forrester Wave
TM
to identify the top players in the
relevant market segment, then they issue RFPs (Requests for Proposal) to
them, evaluate the responses, create short-lists, organise vendor
presentations and Proofs of Concept, then after conducting commercial due
diligence and negotiations, settle on a product and set about planning an
implementation.
When organisations apply this typically “corporate” approach to sourcing an
IAM solution, they usually overlook six 'C's, - problems that are common to
all their candidate alternatives:
Conceptual Subtlety
Centralised Model of Design
Commoditised Functionality
Complexity of Features
Custom Requirements
Closed Interfaces
Conceptual Subtlety
: Human nature has a bias towards the tangible. People
expect the heavy lifting in an IAM ecosystem to be performed by
components that they can see and touch, so to speak. A suggestion that
effective integration can be achieved through appropriate data and protocol
design is often unconvincing. Techniques like the use of open protocols,
meaning-free and universal identifiers, master data management principles,
idempotent messages, one-way notifications instead of synchronous service
calls, etc., seem somewhat anticlimactic compared to “a product that does
everything”. Yet it is precisely these understated and unobtrusive elements
of design that are the most effective. The judicious use of these techniques
reduces the need for dedicated products, which may be all the more reason
that IAM products don't emphasise them!
