The Basics of Identity Management?

An interesting article has been recently written by John Dunn, Techworld, called “The Basics of Identity Management”.

This article actually focuses on “Federated Identity Management (FIM)”. It analyses aspects of FIM and provides the author’s view about what FIM can offer to IT planners. A key point is made by the author:

“To succeed, FIM has to undo half a century of IT, based on the idea that IT is constructed around the logical arrangement and securing of systems into which users are placed. FIM, by contrast, has the potential to be radically user-centric, making users the centrepiece of an IT system, around which systems are built as digital supports. A systems mentality looks on users as existing on a hierarchy of privilege, with higher rungs gaining more authorisation and power, but within defined geographical and logical limits. A FIM way of looking at users is to see these systems from their point of view. That information, or the ability to transact, resides on the network of another company matters not if that it essential to the business objective. It should be accessible.

For the time-being, FIM will most likely be restricted to specific projects – getting two partners working together - with defined goals and timescales. Longer term, it has the potential to transform even the humblest IT operation into something quite new. But as a concept, federation surely represents the future of networks, so that they become not as islands of digital power, but overlapping ‘networks of networks’. It is happening already. But it will force companies to re-examine their own security processes before they jump into its whirlpool of potential difficulties.”

--- NOTE: my original HP blog can be found here ---