Identity titans are battling over log management
Despite economic slowdown, the identity and access management (IAM) market seems on fire. Forrester predicts in a recent report (March 2008) that the market for identity and access management (IAM) solutions will grow more than 20 percent annually, from about $2.6 billion worldwide in 2006 to more than $12.3 billion by 2014.
Similarly, in a security spending survey published by Goldman Sachs in April 2008, Identity Management ranked second in CSO spending priorities (second only behind endpoint management and encryption). 64% of respondents are expecting to increase spending in the area over the next 12 months.
The largest area of growth, Forrester predicts, will be in user account provisioning technologies, which will become a $7.9 billion market by 2014, or 64 percent of the entire IAM market.
The titans in user provisioning, vying for the Gartner Magic Quadrant leadership position, are Sun Microsystems, Oracle, IBM and Novell. Each of these vendors appears to be stock-piling weapons for the fight. Oracle and Sun each closed role mining acquisitions in recent months: Oracle bought Bridgestream and Bharosa, while Sun Microsystems bought Vaau and IBM focused on Single Sign On by scooping up Encentuate.
Beyond role mining and single sign on, (privileged) user activity monitoring and log management appear to be the next battle ground. When provisioning new users and granting new privileges, it is valuable to know how and when users are accessing company resources and applications. In many cases, regulatory frameworks are demanding that organizations know how privileges are used.
IBM took the first step by acquiring Consul Risk Management, which has some rudimentary log management and privileged user activity monitoring capabilities. ArcSight, a recent entrant into the log management market, is claiming some tie-in with the Oracle identity ecosystem in a recent press release. Novell and Sun Microsystems both collaborate with LogLogic.
To learn more, stay tuned for an upcoming LogLogic Webinar on the topic on July 31, 2008.