Businesses miss identity and access management value

• 
  Warwick Ashford

  Security Editor
• Published: 23 Mar 2009 10:07

Many European businesses are failing to get value out of investments in identity and access management technologies because projects are not governed properly, according toanalyst firm Gartner.

Organisations continue to deploy these technologies without mature identity and access management (IAM) programmes in place, according to Gartner analyst Ant Allen.

The business value of investing in strategic management activities is one of the topics Ant Allen is to cover in a keynote presentation at the two-day Gartner IAM Summit starting in London today.

IAM tends to be regarded as a security infrastructure project, but needs a dedicated governance programme if it is to succeed, said Allen. This is because it touches so many different parts of the business, he said.

Unlike most other IT projects, he said IAM involves process change. Ithas a direct impact on business units across an organisation, involving several stakeholders such as compliance officers.

"Without the right governance structure and the right participation of these stakeholders in the IAM programme management team, you are not going to get as much value," he said.

According to Allen, the longer term benefits of IAM will be realised only if there is a high level of communication between the business and IT.However,this is still lacking in many organisations, he said.

This is also one of the main reasons he said IT is failing to make business understand the importance of investing in an IAM programme, as well as the products from suppliers.

"Key to theIAM project is the attainment of executive sponsorship and the implementation of a cross-organisational project team," he said.

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