Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Security
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Controlled Access

April 29, 2002 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - If you're pondering electronic provisioning, think single sign-on all over again. Like its predecessor, e-provisioning is saddled with all the same integration and complexity problems that kept single sign-on from becoming the killer application many industry observers thought it would be.


The definition of e-provisioning varies depending on which vendor you talk to, but basically, e-provisioning tools mediate among human resources systems, directory services and network resources to automatically set up new user accounts into the applications that employees need to do their jobs. Inversely, these tools also automate de-provisioning by removing user accounts from the system when employees leave or no longer need those resources.


Vendors claim that their products provision users to all the resources they need across the enterprise, which is possible in simple cases such as that of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNSF) in Fort Worth, Texas. BNSF automated add/delete/change functions to three commercial platforms using Lighthouse from Austin, Texas-based Waveset Technologies Inc.


But automating provisioning across all applications, particularly in complex enterprises, isn't possible, say analysts and users. About the best that companies can hope for is 20% to 55% coverage, they say.


"No vendors cover 100% of the applications or systems that exist in an enterprise. So the question becomes, How much coverage can you get?" says Mike Hager, vice president of network security and disaster recovery at OppenheimerFunds Distributor Inc. in New York.


Hager did what many early adopters are doing: He scaled his provisioning requirements down and started with his top two platforms, Windows NT and Novell Inc.'s GroupWise. Even then, his team ran into integration problems between the applications and his provisioning tool, enRole from Access360 in Irvine, Calif. Furthermore, Hager says, it will probably take another two years to develop the connectors to provision to the rest of his target applications.


"Even if you can address 80% of your needs, you still have to do the rest of the provisioning by hand, which was the same weakness in single sign-on," explains John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn.


But early adopters say they're willing to pay this price for what they see as an inevitable return on investment. Hager, for example, has already reduced his maintenance staff from seven employees to three. And users say that by starting now, they're also laying the foundation for future applications that will safely allow business partners and customers into their networks.


Dangerous Orphans


One primary driver for undertaking unwieldy provisioning projects is the security risk posed by orphaned accounts left behind when employees leave or change job functions. With manual add/delete/change processes, inactive user accounts could get lost in hundreds of applications across the enterprise.



Jump to comments

Security

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER
Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.
WHITE PAPER
Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.
WHITE PAPER
Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.

White Papers & Webcasts

Share our Strength
Download Now  

Managing Secure File Transfer to Save Time, Money and IT Resources
Learn how companies are using innovative technology to overcome these challenges and improve user productivity by offloading e-mail attachments and replacing FTP with...

Security Convergence Equals Network Security Cost Savings
Listen to IBM Internet Security Systems' take on network security convergence.

Disaster Recovery 2008: Reduced Costs and Improved Performance
How long can your Enterprise afford to be without your data? With an accelerated disaster recovery program, you never have to answer this...