Microsoft establishes Identity with ILM 2

Microsoft is ready to go public with its Identity Lifecycle Manager 2 beta. Of course, Microsoft shops will like it a whole lot more than those committed to mixed environments. There are some interesting concepts featured in this release that are worth thinking about no matter your infrastructure looks like.

• Self-service for end-users. One way to cut IT overhead expenses and accelerate service is to get off the critical path. ILM allows end-users greater flexibility in managing their identities, and in requesting necessary access rights. Just like the value of NAC is self-service configuration management, the main value of ILM 2 may well be the capability for end-users to manage their own password resets and other identity functions.
• Common administration interfaces. IT costs can also be reduced by standardizing on tools with a common look and feel. This reduces training times and reduces the risk of human errors due to simple misuse of the management tool. ILM is based on Active Directory - IT staff that is comfortable with Microsoft management software will be comfortable with ILM. Having common interfaces, definitions and terms, across the IT organization allows IT resources to be able to support more products and to more readily become administrator experts.
• Extend identity management to external Web-based services. Corporate users are leveraging Web-based services such as salesforce.com or GoToMeeting to do their jobs. While it is important to manage the corporate identity within the network, it is becoming necessary for IT to also manage users external identities. ILM supports a number of external web services, where IT uses ILM to manage the identity and the user gets a single sign-on feel. This is more of an evolving feature and there are some interesting start-ups in this space. Most businesses are using more external services - look for and identity management service that can help you support the security needs of mixing SaaS with in-house applications.

There are appealing forward-looking features in ILM 2 that are worth checking out. Even if it might not be right for your shop right now, there are some key ideas there that you should have in your security practice.