Market Consolidation

John Fontana writes a very good piece about the consolidation in the identity managment market -- and what it means for companies making purchasing decisions. Quoting:

"Initially, we weren't real happy that Sun bought Waveset," says Larry Burtt, desktop services group leader for Guidant, which designs and develops cardiovascular medical devices and is based in Indianapolis. "But after conversations with Waveset, we are more comfortable. We'll stay with the Waveset tools provided they still have a focus on Active Directory."

That is because Guidant is committed to Microsoft's Active Directory, which is one user repository that Waveset's Lighthouse can use.

"We are an Active Directory shop, and if [buying Waveset] is a move by Sun to counter Microsoft we would be disappointed," Burtt says. Sun has its own directory service that is part of its identity software suite, but Guidant has no plans to replace Active Directory.

Burtt says he thinks emerging identity standards, such as the Security Assertion Markup Language and the Service Provisioning Markup Language eventually will provide flexibility for his decision-making.