I have been exploring for a while the “Enterprise Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0” topic. It is fascinating. I must say that at the current stage it is hard to fully understand and predict what is going to happen. I am particularly interested in the implications that this is going to have on “Enterprise Identity Management”.
The increased adoption and use of “Web 2.0” technologies and “social networking approaches and tools” (e.g. blogs, wikis, etc.) by employees is indeed having an impact on:
How employees interact and share information
How information is collected, dynamically organised and re-shared
How expertise, enterprise’s “communities of interest” and work relationships are created
I’ve found relevant discussions on this topic in Dion Hinchcliffe’s blog (Enterprise Web 2.0 - http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/). The trend of introducing Web 2.0 in the enterprise (and its impact) is referred as the “consumerization of the enterprise”. Interesting predictions include:
Convergence of Web 2.0 and SOA
“Mashup” of enterprise processes, applications and involved information
Moving towards “Social Collaboration” in enterprises
“Collective Intelligence”
I believe this trend is going to be reinforced when “IT & support organisations” within the enterprise are going to explore and adopt “Web 2.0 models” in production, control and distribution processes.
In this context, I wonder what the actual impact on “Enterprise Identity Management” is going to be, for example in terms of access control, identity lifecycle management, provisioning, storage and aggregation of confidential and personal data and privacy.
Current enterprises are mainly organised around a “centralised/very hierarchical” control, driven by business policies and objectives – impacting how information is made available, how employees interact and how tasks and processes are performed. “Web 2.0” and social, collaborative approaches are instead moving the control towards the individuals who aim at continuously create, reshape and aggregate “content and information” and dynamically (re-)define interaction flows. I see potential conflicts in this space that need to be properly understood and addressed.
However, I am sure that current trends will bring a new wave of opportunities that (among other things) will also impact “enterprise identity management” and reshape current solution offerings. This is an interesting research topic I am going to spend time in the coming months …
What do you think? What is your prediction/view?
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