Enterprise Directories: The Key to Identity Management
by Michael Posever, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Published March, 2004: Posted March, 2004

Abstract:

It was not that long ago that there was a lot of buzz surrounding the topic of enterprise directories. While that buzz has subsided somewhat, there has been a notable growth in interest in deploying identity management. In some cases this interest is driven by the general recognition that identity management makes good business sense. However, in industries such as healthcare and finance, the interest in identity management is also driven by regulatory requirements.

Since directory services are a key component of identity management, the growing interest in identity management necessitates our examining the state of the art in deploying enterprise directories. In order to do this, we turned to Mike Posever, an end user who has successfully deployed enterprise directories.

In this IT Business Brief, Mike Posever discusses how directories run the risk of being as fragmented as the user registries they were designed to replace. While avoiding the utopian promise of a single enterprise directory, Mike outlines a series of steps that IT professionals can take to minimize the number of directories that exist within an enterprise. As Mike points out, IT organizations that do a good job of managing directories will be positioned both to address and to capitalize on the challenges of the distributed applications era. In contrast, IT organizations that do a poor job of managing directories put the future viability of their companies at risk.

About the Author:

Michael Posever is the Director of Architecture for the Global Information Technology group of PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com) which provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services for public and private clients.

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