Directory Services

Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition (DSEE) and Oracle Internet Directory (OID) will co-exist as strategic products (contrary to some interpretations out there). This is because each product has a unique set of capabilities that address different market segments and use cases. Oracle will innovate both directories, which includes adding some of the administration, reporting and systems management capabilities that have been built for the OID and OVD products to the DSEE product. Sun DSEE will be re-branded as Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition.

Meanwhile, Sun OpenDS will continue as an open-source project.

Oracle Virtual Directory will be the strategic product for identity virtualization.

Access Management

Oracle Access Manager will be the strategic product for web single sign-on. Sun OpenSSO will continue on as an open-source project for the community.

Sun’s Fedlet capabilities will be integrated into Oracle Identity Federation, which will be the strategic product for Federated Single Sign-On.

Sun’s Secure Token Service will become part of the Oracle Access Management Suite going forward.

Products that aren’t impacted by the Sun acquisition, and therefore remain strategic for their specific areas are Oracle Entitlement Server (fine-grained authorization), Oracle Adaptive Access Manager (strong authentication and risk-based access management), Oracle Web Services Manager (SOA + Web Services security) and Oracle Enterprise SSO (SSO for Desktop and Mainframes).

Identity Administration

Oracle Identity Manager will be the strategic identity administration and provisioning product moving forward. Sun Identity Manager, re-branded as Oracle Waveset (didn’t think I’d hear that name again outside of reunions), will be maintained for quite some time, and some of its key features like IDE integration and tamper-proof auditing will be integrated into OIM.

Identity Governance

Sun Role Manager will be re-branded as Oracle Identity Analytics and will become the strategic identity governance product in the Oracle Identity Management Suite. It will provide capabilities in the area of role mining, compliance attestation, and identity dashboards and reports, and will be enhanced to leverage some of the best-of-breed capabilities that Oracle has in the area of business intelligence and data mining. Note that role lifecycle management capabilities continue to be offered currently via the Oracle Role Manager product.

General

Throughout this acquisition, Oracle’s focus is on the customer. We want to make sure that customers continue to remain successful in their projects, and get value from the investments they have made. This is reflected in some of the strategic decisions made, and in points made throughout the webcast:

• In most cases, Oracle will be developing migration tools to help customers move to the new strategic products.
• Oracle will be providing support and maintenance for all the Sun products for a very long period of time, including lifetime support in certain cases.

Obviously, there will be a lot more information coming in the next few weeks/months. Stay tuned, and check out oracle.com/identity for more information.

Tags: Identity Analytics, Identity Governance, OpenSSO, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Identity Management, Oracle Identity Manager, OracleSun, Oracle_IDM, Sun Directory Server, Sun Identity Management, Sun Identity Manager, Sun Role Manager

It took so long, I think of lot of people thought this day was just a mirage. And unfortunately, the delay has cost us (in the identity management team) the opportunity to work with some great folks like Eve Maler and Pat Patterson. But now it is done, and the real work can begin as we start to lay out exactly how the IAM suites of the two companies – arguably the best in the business – will come together. It isn’t going to be easy, and our emphasis on our customers means that it can’t be quick, but the result should be great. In the Oracle+Sun strategy update this morning, Thomas Kurian gave the following overview on the Identity Management product strategy:

• Oracle Identity Management Suite continues as the strategic family of products, but Oracle will continue to invest in and share technology between Sun and Oracle products
• Both Oracle Internet Directory (OID) and Sun Directory Server will be supported, with common LDAP administration through our DS Management tools. Oracle will continue to maintain OpenDS
• Sun Role Manager will become Oracle Identity Analytics, the strategic identity analytics tool
• Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Virtual Directory, Oracle Entitlements Server and Oracle Identity Federation continue as Oracle’s strategic products for their respective areas, with technology incorporated from Sun
• Oracle will invest in Sun Identity Manager and integrate it with Oracle Identity Manager
• Oracle will also invest in Sun OpenSSO and integrate it with OAM

Of course, the devil is in the details, and I expect that the coming weeks and months are going to be a little crazy as those details are laid bare. Planning has been going on for a while, and now those plans can finally be communicated and the ramifications thrashed out. That should provide a fair amount of fodder for discussion in the blogosphere and twittersphere (so stay tuned). I’ll try to provide some information here as and when it can be made public.

And a warm welcome to all my new colleagues from Sun. Buckle in for what should be a very interesting ride. I’ll be at Oracle HQ in a couple of weeks to participate in some of the planning and discussions that will be happening. So if you will be around, then lets meet up.

Tags: Oracle Identity Management, Oracle Identity Manager, OracleSun, Oracle_IDM, Sun Identity Management, Sun Role Manager