This morning, I watched the launch webcast for the Oracle Identity Cloud Service  a cloud native security and identity management platform designed to be an integral part of the enterprise security fabric.

This short video, shown on the webcast, provides a brief introduction:

 

Sometimes, I get impatient with the pace of progress in the Identity industry in general and certain companies in particular.  Yesterday, I listened to a presentation where the speaker was extolling the virtues of thinking of Identity and Access Management as an enabler for Digital Transformation, not just a defensive protector of data and systems.  He spoke as if this were a startling new concept.

I looked back in my blog and found a couple of entries that show at least some of us considered Identity to be a key business enabler a decade ago:

From May 2005 (the first month I blogged)

Viewing Identity Management as a business enabler rather than just a cost-reduction vehicle or compliance assistant allows us to think beyond the constraints of how we do business now. Just think of how many more customers you could serve, how many more services you could deliver and how many more partner relationships you could leverage if you knew that identities of all participants were highly secure but highly connectable!

From January 2007

Identity is an essential, core enabler of online business. Identity must not be an afterthought, a necessary evil, or a function forced by government regulation. It is more properly recognized as a key business enabler. The modern business paradigm of delivering highly personalized service to individual consumers demands that Identity is at the core of the business process.

It is a concept that is still valid today.  I’m glad to see more folks are catching on.

 

Eleven years ago today, on May 13, 2005, also Friday the 13th, I wrote my first post for this Discovering Identity blog, then hosted on the Sun Microsystems blog server.  In my maiden post, entitled Sun-Microsoft Interoperability – Focus on Identity Management, I wrote about Scott McNealy and Steve Ballmer speaking about enabling interoperability between Microsoft and Sun platforms.  

In line with my focus on Identity Management, I commented:

Identity Management is the key to enabling interoperability. It is the pivot about which the Microsoft/Sun relationship turns. Why – because Identity, by its very nature, transcends platforms. Regardless of which application or platform is being used, a user’s basic identity doesn’t change. So, in a naturally heterogenous world, an ability to rise above the differences between computer platforms is necessary if companies are to reach goals of efficiency and connectivity they require for business success.

Although I might now change a word or two in that paragraph, the essence of the statement still holds true –  Identity is definitely a key enabler for digital interactions among people, systems, applications and devices.

As a novice blogger, I also commented about my excitement in joining Sun the previous October:

I’m delighted to be here, on the front lines of a market with high customer demand, multiple business benefits, interesting innovation, strong competition and real-world results.

It turned out that publishing my blog was the single most beneficial thing I did for my career at Sun. It opened doors, solidified my credibility, triggered new opportunities and launched new friendships with people all over the world.

A lot of water has passed under the proverbial bridge in the last eleven years. Just think – my blog is older than the iPhone and almost as old as Facebook!  Once a formidable giant, Sun Microsystems is no more. Interesting terms like the “Internet of Things” and “selfie” hadn’t yet been invented when this blog was launched. The number of channels for sharing information on the Internet has skyrocketed exponentially since then. But the content of this blog still hangs around. 

Although the frequency of my posts diminished dramatically after joining Oracle six years ago, and my blog’s popularity in the IAM industry certainly waned, I still find it enjoyable to make my little contribution to the blogosphere every now and then.

It makes me wonder, what will the next eleven years bring?

Yesterday, I enjoyed watching a Kuppinger Cole webcast entitled, “Digital Transformation: Why Security and Privacy Matter,” presented by Martin Kuppinger, Principal Analyst, Kuppinger Cole, and Jackson Shaw, Identity Management Expert, Dell Security:

Digital technology has changed our society in an appreciable way. Just as our personal lives are being transformed digitally, the same happens in corporations and with our traditional technology solutions. The digital transformation affects everything from customer experience andoperational processes to business models and IT focus. Even software development is being digitally transformed. This leads to new security and privacy challenges: In IoT and digital transformation, organizations have to deal with more identities and relations than ever before. 

I was impressed by Martin Kuppinger’s discussion about what Digital Transformation really is.  I think some people take a very narrow, IT-centric view of Digital Transformation, but Martin took a much broader view, stating that Digital Transformation impacts every part of an organization.

The eight fundamentals of Digital transformation include:

1. The Digital Transformation affects every organization
2. The Digital Transformation is here to stay
3. Digital Transformation is more than just IoT
4. Digital Transformation mandates Organizational Change
5. Everything & Everyone becomes connected
6. Security & Safety: not a dichotomy 
7. Security is a risk – and an opportunity
8. Identity is the glue – who or what may get access to what?

Jackson Shaw pointed out that Identity is evolving, from its initial focus on security and lowering operating costs, towards the goal of “Identity Transforming Customer Outcomes.”  Digital Transformation is all about enabling businesses to disrupt the old legacy way of doing things in favor of providing new, innovative products and services that deliver real value.  Certainly, Identity is a vital enabler to make that happen.

Yesterday, I enjoyed attending a webcast entitled, “Computer-Centric Identity Management.” Led by Ivan Nicolai, Lead Analyst at Kuppinger Cole, the presentation was subtitled, “From Identity Management to Identity Relationship Management.  The changing relationship between IAM, CRM and Cybersecurity.”

I found the presentation to be concise, informative, and thought-provoking – particularly the concept that the IAM practitioner must transition from the role of “protector” to “enabler”.

I think the following diagram does a good job of illustrating the relationships people have with organizations, mobile communication devices and other devices in the growing world of IoT. Identity Relationships are critical in enabling the potential of Digital Transformation.

Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is now available to download:

The 2016 dataset is bigger than ever, examining over 100,000 incidents, including 2,260 confirmed data breaches across 82 countries. With data provided by 67 contributors including security service providers, law enforcement and government agencies, this year’s report offers unparalleled insight into the cybersecurity threats you face.

Enjoy!

Today at the Gartner IAM Summit today I heard the term “Digital Business” dozens of times.  Do you think we have the right collections of buzzwords to describe that trend?

Thanks to the Marketoonist for the insightful drawing!

I was recently introduced to a powerful new tool created by the folks at Persistent Systems, a long time Oracle development and systems integrator partner. The Oracle Identity and Access Management platform has a very rich set of Java APIs that enable developers to access nearly all of the functionality this platform from external applications.  The challenge is not completeness, but complexity.  To take advantage of this rich API set, external developers have to know much about the internal workings of the IAM products and the intricacies of writing the Java code to access the APIs.

The Persistent Systems engineers have developed a REST API on top of the Oracle Identity Governance Java API that exposes OIG capabilities in a much simpler, more “process friendly” way. For example, a few services available are:

• User Access Request
• Get User’s Provisioned Roles
• Acting on Pending Authorizations
• Authenticate User
• Authorize User

… and the list goes on.

How would you like to translate those “business level” requests into Java API calls?

To demonstrate the capability of the REST API, a developer at Persistent Systems created the application shown in the image below, with a clean, easy-to use interface for OIG approvals and certifications – all without being an expert in Java or the detailed processes within OIG.  The iPhone and Apple watch images include screen shots from my phone and watch.  It really does work!

The most important thing to consider is not the neat user interface – although it has some cool features – it is how an intelligently constructed REST API can provide development agility, application flexibility and rapid deployment, all essential enablers for digital transformation.

 Leonardo Da Vinci has been credited with the wise statement, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  I think Leonardo would like this approach.

Sixty two years ago today, as I was commencing my junior year in high school, the first Automated Teller Machine, called the “Docuteller,” began dispensing cash at Chemical Bank in Rockville Centre, New York. According to a Wired article, 

It marked the first time reusable, magnetically coded cards were used to withdraw cash.

Nowadays, ATMs are ubiquitous. Mag stripe cards are widely used for identification at ATMs and in many other applications. EMV chip-and-PIN cards are becoming more broadly used in the US, although they have been used widely in Europe for many years.

Wide proliferation of ATMs dramatically changed the consumer banking industry. I suppose that mobile banking apps and mobile payments are now changing banking as dramatically as ATMs did over the past sixty years!

By the way, the Chemical Bank ATM was not the first ATM in the world.  The British beat the US by a couple of years, albeit without the mag stripe plastic ATM card. According to Wikipedia, 

It is widely accepted that the first ATM was put into use by Barclays Bank in its Enfield Town branch in north London, United Kingdom, on 27 June 1967. This machine was inaugurated by English comedy actor Reg Varney  This instance of the invention is credited to John Shepherd-Barron of printing firm De La Rue, who was awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Year Honours. This design used paper cheques issued by a teller or cashier, marked with carbon-14 for machine readability and security, which in a latter model were matched with a personal identification number (PIN).

We have come a long way!

Do you ever wonder why in the world you receive the ads you do on Facebook or other online venues? Methinks personalized, targeted advertising still has a long way to go.