 "IAM Should Be Mapped Into The Process Lifecycle")
Biztech2.0 speaks to Robert Levine, CEO Sena Systems on the importance of Identity and Access Management (IAM) with a comparative view on the USA and Indian mkts.
How do you compare the Indian and US markets in the way they manage Identity and Access Management?
In the West, Identity and Access Management (IAM) practices have been going on for a good seven years now. A lot of it started with access and control issues that financial institutions had in place. At a later stage, it got built in into the regulatory framework and it got further enhanced into Sarbanes Oxley (SOX). Going ahead, it got added into the audit requirements after failure of controls in the recent financial events in 2009.
In the West there is a notion that capital is cheap and human resources expensive. It’s quite the opposite in Asia. Back in the West, automation would be put into place if there were more than ten people working on a problem. In India there have to be a considerable number of people involved, before automation is considered.
There are some regulatory controls emerging in the Asian market now. To cite an example, the recent two-factor or multi-factor authentication, which is part of the banking regulation in India, is an evident step.
What are your views on the integration of IAM with other IT Solutions?
Sena Systems being an Oracle partner implements IAM solutions in Oracle products. We tend to implement what we call the ‘whole solution,’ looking it from an end-to-end perspective.
IAM systems are not independent but are a part of a large IT Infrastructure. Though you can stage gate them and put them into phases, you definitely have to make sure that they are well connected both from a technology and business process perspective. Also, from a training viewpoint, you have to make sure that the control governance mechanism implemented over time increases, thereby, decreasing the risk of unnecessary side effects.
We also make sure that the implementations are well mapped into the process lifecycles in terms of how IT systems are put into place.
What are the challenges faced by Indian CIOs in the IAM space?
The major issue faced by Indian CIOs with IAM, is the high cost of labour in comparison to the capital. In India, there is a general trend of having manual processes as opposed to running automated systems. This gives rise to a number of issues. It can get you through the initial stages, but right after that there are serious data management and process issues. Having a lot of people involved, makes the process of coordination and running of the systems all the more difficult.