Forrester cites Sun Microsystems as leader in identity management

Forrester Research has hailed Sun Microsystems as the leader in identity management, calling the company an identity management 'powerhouse'.

Forrester's Q1 2006 Wave Vendor Summary has been released, naming Sun Microsystems as the leader in identity management. Forrester's comprehensive comparison of identity management solutions used about 125 objective and subjective criteria in evaluating the top identity management solutions available, with Sun's Java System Identity Manager software scoring most highly.

Forrester praised the product, saying: "By a large margin, Sun Java System Identity Manager came in as the most function-rich solution in Forrester's evaluation. The product led all of its competitors in several categories, such as connector functionality, policy management, auditing and architecture."

Mark Ehmke, Software Sales Regional Manager for Sun Microsystems South Africa, explains why Sun Java System Identity Manager has been so successful. "Part of the reason stems from the fact that it's the most complete product of its kind available. It also offers a refreshing approach to identity management, something the market has clearly identified with.

"Most other players deploy agents on top of every application their solution has to connect to within the organisation," says Ehmke. "This makes it simple to form the connections once the agent is in place, but the down-side is that it requires an agent for each separate application and when the application is replaced, the agent must be replaced too. What Sun's solution does is offer an 'agentless' approach to connecting with applications."

Ehmke says Sun's 'agentless' approach allows for smoother long-term integration. "By handling application integration from a centralised point, application changes only need to be made at the core, allowing the application to integrate seamlessly across all deployments in the field."

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This centralised management approach, he says, also allows for speedier deployment. "It is easier to integrate and manage than other solutions," enthuses Ehmke. "And implementation times are reduced thanks to one central area of implementation and automatic deployment across the network."

Ehmke also believes that the time-savings and security benefits brought to the table by Sun Java System Identity Manager, have led to an already remarkable global adoption rate. "Sun is today the undisputed provisioning market leader with more than 500 customers," says the Forrester report.

Sara Gates, vice-president of identity management at Sun Microsystems, concludes: "Our commitment at Sun is to offer identity management software that lets companies make security a seamless part of their business in ways that help them unlock value and make money. Our tremendous success in the Forrester report demonstrates we are succeeding at this."

Reprints from the Q1 2006 Forrester Wave Vendor Summary are available on the Sun Microsystems identity management Web site at http://www.sun.com/software/products/identity/news/index.xml.