Monday, July 28

BMWs and Bicycles: The Value of Complexity

If your ideas about Oracle Identity & Access solutions start and end with the word complexity, you're missing the big picture. Contrary to what competitors might be telling you, Oracle's current IAM solution looks nothing like a conglomeration of distinct, aging products. If you want to know about today's Oracle IAM solutions, consider concepts like: common data model, consolidated feature set, shared services, unified admin and operational consoles, and a lower TCO than managing multiple point solutions.

It didn't happen by accident. Oracle has a large, diverse, and talented team of engineers and developers. I'm consistently impressed by the level of talent roaming the halls at Oracle. And the team knew years ago that continued innovation was important. They intentionally expended significant effort to rationalize the product backend so that it's not simply multiple integrated products. Did you know that Oracle uses a single connector for user provisioning, access governance, and privileged account management? Did you know that Oracle's provisioning product also provides access requests, risk scoring, and entitlement reviews in a single product? (not a license bundle - a single installed product)

Can the entire solution be downloaded onto a smartphone and installed in 3-5 minutes? No. But, the solution can meet any current or future Identity & Access requirement with a modular, unified approach to Identity & Access for legacy, enterprise, cloud, mobile, and social use-cases. And there are numerous customer case studies that demonstrate Oracle's IAM technology has already been implemented in mobile, consumer, and IoT scenarios with extreme scale. Claiming that Oracle can't handle third platform use-cases is either ignorant or deceitful. Which it is depends on who you're talking to.

That's not to say that there aren't IAM solutions on the market that offer less complexity. But let's investigate complexity for a moment.

Is complexity good or bad?

If you already answered, you're missing the point. The reality is that complexity should be commensurate with your needs and the optimal amount of complexity will depend on the context.

A BMW is more complex than a bicycle. If your goal is take a leisurely ride through a park to enjoy the weather while getting some exercise, then a bicycle may be a great fit. And a BMW will miss the mark entirely. If the goal is to find a vehicle for your daily commute to work, you might still opt for a bicycle but you'll be balancing the desire for less complexity with the BMW's feature advantages of getting you there quicker, shielding you from the weather, and requiring less effort. If your intended use-cases involve cross-country trips or travel in severe weather, the complexity of BMW engineering becomes a thing of desire. And if you fall in love with the way a BMW handles corners at speed, well... let's just say you may stop thinking about complexity altogether.

Getting back to IAM, here are some IAM features to consider:
  • Enterprise Access Mgt - Context-Aware Adaptive Access and Fraud Detection
  • Enterprise Access Mgt - API Security and Protocol Translation
  • Enterprise Access Mgt - Social Logon and Identity Validation
  • Enterprise Access Mgt - Mobile App for Strong Authentication
  • Enterprise Access Mgt - Enterprise Single Sign On
  • Mobile Security - Secure App Management and Endpoint Data Protection
  • Mobile Security - True SSO to backend applications from the mobile device
  • Mobile Security - Apps integrated with Enterprise Access Mgt
  • Identity Governance - Integrated Access Requests and Provisioning
  • Identity Governance - Entitlement Certifications
  • Identity Governance - Single point of audit across cloud, mobile, and enterprise
  • Privileged Account Management - Proxied Access, Session Management
  • Privileged Account Management - Session Recording
  • Privileged Account Management - Emergency Access
When you begin to think about how these capabilities can be used to enable new business opportunities, it starts to feel like a BMW approaching a corner. And you'll be glad you're not on a bicycle.