By Johna Till Johnson and Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Nemertes Research Inc.

May 20, 2005

Microsoft’s (NASD: MSFT) recently announced distributed-identity infrastructure initiative highlights the growing momentum behind identity management. The initiative, called the Identity Metasystem, is designed to simplify access to corporate resources and protect user privacy across the Internet. The move aligns closely with enterprise requirements: According to recent Nemertes research, 38% of all enterprises cite identity management as a top-funded security initiative, and most organizations that Nemertes considers “leading-edge” in security deployment are focusing on it today.

Microsoft also announced a collaboration with erstwhile arch-rival Sun Microsystems (NASD: SUNW) resulting in two interoperable single-sign-on protocols that the companies plan to submit to the Liberty Alliance (led by Sun) and the WS-Federation (led by Microsoft). Both groups are working on defining federated identity-management specifications. In the meantime, the specs will be incorporated in the next versions of Microsoft’s Active Directory and Sun's Directory Server, due out next year.

The complete Impact Analysis is available to Nemertes clients. For more information, please contact Christine Zimmerman at christine@nemertes.com [1]