Quest Software Acquisition Underscores Enterprise Shift to Identity-Based Security and Cloud

Nemertes Impact Analysis:

Quest Software (NASDAQ:QSFT) is acquiring privately held Bitkoo, a maker of dynamic authorization management software that can be used by Enterprises to provide fine-grained authorization based on the eXtensible Access Control Mark-up Language (XACML). Authorization management is core to identity and access management, highlighting the enterprise shift from perimeter driven, location-centric security to identity-centric security: 46% of companies characterize their security model as identity-centric, 32% as location-centric. Organizations are also shifting to the cloud with 78% and 17% of companies adopting Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), respectively. XACML-based solutions provide a standards-based means to integrate authorization of premise-based and cloud-based applications and go hand-in-hand with authentication standards such as Secure Assertion Markup Language (SAML), Lightweight Director Access Protocol (LDAP) and OpenID.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Look for XACML-based authorization solutions and pay particular attention to integration between cloud-based and premise-based applications.

Vendors: All SaaS and IaaS providers should provide XACML interface to support integration with enterprise authorization management.

Investors: Boost for Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and private held Axiomatics, Layer7 Technologies, Ping Identity and Symplified.