Author: Ryan Ward

Ryan Ward is CISO at Avatier, responsible for security initiatives as well as strategic direction of IAM and security products. A sixteen-year veteran of the security industry, Ward comes to Avatier after five years with MillerCoors where he served as Enterprise Security Manager of the brewing company and USA Information Security Officer for the public company SABMiller. In those positions Ward was responsible for all Information Security initiatives for MillerCoors. Prior to MillerCoors, he served as Senior Information Security Leader at Perot Systems while supporting the Wolters Kluwer account. He previously held the position of Vice President of Information Systems for Allscripts.Ryan is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Do your homework — Sun Identity Manager migration

Do your homework — Sun Identity Manager migration
  • July 11, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • Retire your Sun identity manager. Yes, most identity and access management (IAM) companies are trying to convince current Sun Identity Manager customers to migrate to a different product since it…read more →

Justin Bieber – a reason for effective automated user deprovisioning

Justin Bieber – a reason for effective automated user deprovisioning
  • June 10, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • Automate celebrity user provisioning and de-provisioning. As a musician and an information security professional, I personally wish that de-provisioning could apply to Justin Bieber. I am pretty sure that most…read more →

InfraGard Highlights Focus Needed to Improve Information Security

InfraGard Highlights Focus Needed to Improve Information Security
  • May 31, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • Information security best practices. During last week’s information security Midwest InfraGard SuperConference, the FBI stressed concern about the growing problem of intellectual property theft from the United States via espionage. China…read more →

The Complex Process of Keeping Access Governance Software Simple

The Complex Process of Keeping Access Governance Software Simple
  • April 23, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • Access governance security and compliance. With the rapid growth of the access governance software market, you would think that access certification issues would be a thing of the past. Unfortunately,…read more →

How to Use Identity Intelligence to Identify the Good and Bad within Your Organization

How to Use Identity Intelligence to Identify the Good and Bad within Your Organization
  • April 8, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • Identity intelligence must-have. Security professionals, just like business professionals, need to do a better job at leveraging the data available to them to make the best decisions possible. In business…read more →

Think about "Risk Management" when Outsourcing Information Security

Think about "Risk Management" when Outsourcing Information Security
  • April 2, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • Outsourcing information security risks. I have never been a huge fan of outsourcing information security, especially when security operations and vulnerability management are intermingled with infrastructure outsourcing deals. I have…read more →

7 Key Costs Areas to Investigate When Purchasing an Identity and Access Management Solution

7 Key Costs Areas to Investigate When Purchasing an Identity and Access Management Solution
  • March 28, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • The true cost of ownership. So you think Identity and Access Management (IAM) product licensing is your main financial concern with an identity management project…? Think again! Unfortunately, many organizations…read more →

How to Get Bang for the Buck Out of Your Self-Service Password Management Solution

How to Get Bang for the Buck Out of Your Self-Service Password Management Solution
  • March 19, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • Reduce costs by enabling business users. One of the biggest bang-for-your-buck purchases in the security world is still an enterprise-class self-service password management software solution, yet many organizations are still…read more →

What’s Bigger than Identity and Access Management? IAM IT Automation is…

What’s Bigger than Identity and Access Management? IAM IT Automation is…
  • February 14, 2013 //
  • Ryan Ward

  • IT automation muscle. It is time to start thinking more holistically about the capabilities of identity and access management and IT automation solutions to reach the end-goal of true business…read more →