NetPro Directory Experts Conference 2008 Survey Reveals Continued Identity and Access Management Challenges

NetPro Directory Experts Conference 2008 Survey Reveals Continued Identity and Access Management Challenges

Respondents Split on Effectiveness of Their Organization’s Identity and Access Management Performance

PHOENIX, AZ–(EMWNews – August 13, 2008) –

NEWS FACTS

— NetPro, a leading provider of infrastructure

optimization software, today announced the availability of its

Directory Experts Conference (DEC) 2008 survey report. Topping the list as

a key challenge for IT professionals and vendors was the issue of identity

and access management.

— Conducted by NetPro annually at DEC, the goal of the survey is to gain

a better understanding of the issues facing attendee organizations, the

relative priority of those issues, current tool usage and common practices

for directory and other Windows infrastructure management tasks.

— Of the 565 delegates in attendance at DEC 2008, approximately 50

percent of the overall pool of conference attendees responded to the

survey. Respondents primarily consisted of technicians who work within

large corporate and governmental IT organizations, and are responsible for

Active Directory management as well as supporting large numbers of

directory users.

— According to the survey, respondents are divided on the success of

their organization’s identity and access management performance. While 35

percent consider themselves either “world class” or “better than average,”

40 percent of respondents believe their organization’s identity and access

management practices to be “novices” or “less effective than we wish.”

— DEC attendees in charge of identity and access management

responsibilities have almost doubled from prior years, from 24 percent in

2005 to 46 percent in 2008 — demonstrating a clear increase in the

importance of tackling this issue amongst vendors and IT professionals

alike.

— Of the various tasks associated with identity and access management

implementation, user provisioning / de-provisioning easily captured first

place among IT respondents with over 1/3 rating this area problematic at

minimum. A tedious area subject to high volumes of requests, 5 percent of

respondents rated it as “Out of Control” in their organizations, and only

28 percent rated it as “Handled Well” or a “Non-Issue.” This same topic

took second place amongst vendor respondents, receiving problematic ratings

from 20 percent. However, although a clear concern, only 17 percent of

respondents have fully automated provisioning.

— When it comes to addressing identity and access management challenges

within their organization, specifically in regards to compliance reporting

(69 percent), security configuration (58 percent), user provisioning /

de-provisioning (55 percent) and password management (53 percent),

respondents are primarily underwhelmed by the quality of automation tools

available.

— Founded by NetPro in 2001, DEC provides experienced Active Directory

administrators with advanced technical education from the industry’s top

experts and Microsoft technology leadership. Today, with over 1,000

participants annually, the conference has grown to include multiple

Microsoft technologies including Active Directory, Exchange Server, SQL

Server, File Systems and ILM. Beginning in 2009, DEC will be called The

Experts Conference (TEC) for Directory & Identity and it will be hosted

alongside its new sister conference, The Experts Conference (TEC) for

Exchange.

QUOTES

— “The DEC 2008 Survey shows that Federation technology adoption is

growing at a strong clip — having captured about 50% of the early market

— and the value it provides to enable access across partner organizations

is driving that adoption in the marketplace,” said Tejas Dixit, Platform

Marketing Group Manager for Identity and Security at Microsoft. “It is

great to see such a positive reception for Federation technology in the

marketplace and we appreciate the education provided to the world’s largest

users of Windows technology by NetPro’s Directory Experts Conference.”

— “As the leading provider of technology for Windows infrastructure

management, NetPro strongly believes in research to understand the issues,

needs and best practices of the identity and access management community,”

said Kevin Hickey, President and Chief Executive Officer, NetPro. “The

knowledge we have gained from this year’s DEC survey enables us to build

better products and we share it freely with the community to contribute to

the productivity and effectiveness of its members.”

— “The results of the DEC survey suggest that identity and access

management is clearly on the radar of enterprise IT practitioners,” said

Gil Kirkpatrick, Expert-in-Residence, NetPro. “With that said, growing

numbers are looking to deploy or have deployed role-based access control

products to better manage access rights. While managing user access rights

across distributed resources and applications can certainly be a complex

task, it is a task required to enforce security and meet compliance

requirements.”

— “There are many operational problem areas within the identity and access

management community today — from password management and compliance

reporting to delegating administrative rights,” said Brad Hibbert, Vice

President of Product Strategy, NetPro. “Not surprisingly, getting better

tools and automation tops DEC survey respondents’ wish list for the second

year in a row. To help streamline these issues, NetPro offers

AccessManager to help administrators meet security and compliance mandates

and lower overall costs with centralized role-based access management,

delegation and access reporting for Windows resources.”

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS

— View a chart which illustrates the growth

of identity and access management concerns amongst survey respondents

— View screenshots of NetPro’s AccessManager

— Download a graphic of the most

challenging areas of identity and access management for survey respondents

— Download a complimentary copy of the full 2008 DEC Survey Report or the Executive Summary

— Download a datasheet on NetPro’s

AccessManager

— Watch a vlog of NetPro’s Expert-in-Residence, Gil

Kirkpatrick, speaking about identity and access management

About NetPro

As 17-year Infrastructure Optimization software experts, NetPro drives

security and compliance by extending and enhancing Microsoft technologies

to simplify your IT infrastructure better for less. From Active Directory

and Exchange to SharePoint and Server environments, NetPro solutions

feature an integrated architecture with a Microsoft-like experience and the

industry’s easiest deployment. With unprecedented coverage and visibility

across critical applications, NetPro solutions enable organizations to

improve the management and reliability of their IT infrastructures. Our

award-winning solutions are used by the largest and most complex

infrastructures in the world.

Editors Note: NetPro names used in this document are trademarks, which may

be registered in one or more jurisdictions, of NetPro. Microsoft is a

registered trademark, and Active Directory is a trademark of Microsoft

Corp. in the United States and other countries.

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