Posted 8:16 AM (0) comments

Congratulations!

...to all my friends at NetPro and Quest who now will operate under the same banner. Quest, over the past 6 or 7 years, has slowly acquired a number of key players in the 3rd party Microsoft managed identity space from FastLane (back in 2000) through Vintela a couple of years ago. Each time, key players from the acquisition have come along to oversee integration and each time it seems to have gone off without a hitch.

Time will tell how the Experts Conference might be affected, but Quest has been involved there for a few years and I doubt they'll do anything to tamper with success (unlike, say, CSO and Digital ID World).

I wonder if NetPro CEO Kevin Hickey will trade in his Yankee pinstripes for Dodger blue?

Labels: acquisition, Active Directory, trade show

Posted 9:47 AM (0) comments

Gartner IAM Conference

I'm in LA for the Gartner ID conference, an event which I skipped last year. So far, I think I should have skipped this year, also.

The kickoff keynote was by Gartner VP Toby Bell. He's not, though, a VP in their identity practice, or anything close to it. According to his bio, his "key areas of coverage include vendors and trends in the enterprise content management (ECM) marketplace, business process management (BPM) as it applies to enterprise content (CEVA/WEBA), and content strategy, valuation, mining and analytics." He spoke about "reputation" but his biggest takeaway was "Reputation is useless in an anonymous world." I guess whistle-blowers aren't allowed in his reputation universe.

Right now I'm listening to "Financial Crimes Expert" (does that mean he's a former criminal?), Robert Rebhan. Actually, he's a former LA cop. He's talked about Shakespeare, the bible, and Batman while telling stories about "identity theft", that cringe-inducing term. 20 minutes into his talk, "Advancing Your Fraud Prevention Tactics: A Unique Look into Identity Theft and Financial Crimes" we've yet to hear the first tactic. But we have heard about how waiters & hookers steal credit card numbers.

And the internet access is spotty, too.

Labels: Gartner, trade show

Posted 12:47 PM (0) comments

DIDW 2007

Another Digital ID World has come and gone. This year was the first under the management of IDG, and it was a bit like visiting old friends in their new home - you knew the people, of course (although some of the neighbors seemed strange) and the furniture was the same - just arranged differently.

Fortunately, Phil Becker and Eric Norlin managed - despite the changes IDG introduced (such as hiding the registration area!) - to once again provide compelling, interesting content. Bravo!

We did miss a few folks who were in Brussels for the Directory Experts Conference and I hope that conflict doesn't recur next year.

Now I just need to decide if I'll go to the Gartner Identity Summit in November...

Labels: DEC, DIDW, Gartner, trade show