It has been a busy, busy past few months for Code Technology — new projects, new opportunities and a growing business. This post provides an update on our project work with, necessarily, client names obscured:
- Last fall, the Identity and Access Management program that I’ve been leading for a large public-sector education organization paid some big dividends. Over the past two years my team has been building an IAM system on top of Microsoft’s Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS). The main work was actually completed over a year ago, and the first web applications with a few hundred users were launched. But in October 2009 the wider deployment started and we now have over 35,000 users, with as many as 120,000 users to come online in just over three years. By the end of 2010, we could have a dozen applications using the service, enabling access to the broader education sector in Alberta in ways that have previously been impossible.
- We recently completed an IAM strategy and program development project for a very large organization (85,000+ employees) here in Alberta. This enterprise has some compelling identity challenges and high security needs. What is interesting is that we have been able to construct a strategic framework, then drive out enough detail to define individual IAM projects for inclusion into their overall information security program. I strongly believe that defining strategy without a defined delivery program as part of the report is useless — how many strategies and architectures do we see that end up sitting on executive shelves? With this project completed, the client now has a clearly articulated strategy and a practical set of projects defined in a format that is easily understandable by business and technical decision-makers alike.
- We have also been working to develop the Canadiam blog and online community. So far we’ve managed to create the blog site, populate it with a few posts, create a Twitter hash tag (#canadiam) and setup a LinkedIn group. We are always open to new commenters, guest bloggers and other contributions so if you are interested in this niche slice of Canadiana, visit the site and let us know! At the very least, feel free to slap #canadiam on to any Tweets you have related to IAM in Canada.
There really seems to be an increased rumble in the IAM services space — I’ve been at this niche for over seven years and I don’t recall a time when there have been so many implementations in the works. Whether it be government, other public sector or for-profit enterprises, IAM seems to be on everyone’s mind.
In the past few weeks alone, we have had interest in Code’s IAM services from three different provinces — five different projects in total. And that’s just what a crossed my desk — there are at least three major IAM implementations being planned or being delivered in Alberta at present, renewed federal efforts to develop the Pan-Canadian framework, another major project in Manitoba and (from what I can gather) similar initiatives in the other western provinces.
There is a lot going on in the identity world. Will 2010 be the year that IAM makes a big splash across the country?
Mike
