What’s so "magic" about the Gartner Identity Management Magic Quadrant? The Identity & Access Governance Management Magic Quadrant was just released and it’s not a "wand waver" by any stretch of the imagination. And that’s the point. If you go with the Leaders in this quadrant, are you really getting any imagination, creativity, or innovation or are you just following the status quo? One of the technology industry’s maxims is that the larger a company gets, the smaller its incentive to innovate becomes. Why? Because a huge installed base doesn’t clamor for major change.
There is an inherent danger here. Are Oracle, and CA "leaders" in identity and access governance because they are selling individual identity and access governance solutions that perform well, or are they making those sales based on the fact that companies already have substantial commitments to software from the Big Two? When was the last time you heard one of their solutions called simple, elegant, or innovative?
The point here is that you don’t need a snow suit to keep your hands warm. Sometimes buying more than you need is just a waste of your time and money.
So, what is the right criteria for selecting a vendor in this space?
As I see it, there are three basic points of consideration: how fast can the solution be up and running; how easy is it to change the solution to fit changing business needs; and what’s the total cost of ownership.
Time-to-value, from the beginning of installation to the time it is providing benefit to your company, should take weeks and not months. If a vendor can’t get their software up and running quickly, then they are wasting the time of your people–who have better things to do than take months helping to implement an overly complex IAM solution.
Everyone, including Gartner, agrees that the best identity and access management solutions are now built around the business user. While IT still provides control and oversight, the business user needs to have a fast and simple way to implement changing access requirements without the need for numerous help desk calls or IT tickets. The "magic" here is to combine back end automation and front end ease of use–the Holy Grail of consumer technology brought to cubicles of IAM. Automated user provisioning, automatic group management, automated access certification, and automated password reset tools mean dramatic reductions in IT operating cost and implementation. The ability to provide self-service for business users (e.g., self-service provisioning, self-service group management, self-service password reset) through an intuitive IT online store, can meet the needs of the business user faster, and increase the productivity of both the IT department and the rest of the organization. This means lightning fast change at the lowest maintenance costs.
And that’s not real magic, Harry Potter, that’s just great product engineering.
More on this and other observations about the Gartner Identity Management Magic Quadrants in subsequent blogs. In the meantime, you can learn more about the real magic by taking a look at what two leaders in their fields have accomplished with Avatier Identity and Access Management Software (AIMS).
Watch the video to learn how Avatier provides identity management solutions that give healthcare IT and medical professionals’ greater control and access to systems, applications, and information. With Avatier, Gwinnett Medical Center is able to manage provisioning to mission critical systems, employee equipment and healthcare facilities through IT automation and self-service identity management.
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