Identricity.com

Just saw an article over on Network World that Quest Software just bought ActiveEntry from Volcker Informatik AG. From a brief skim of the website, ActiveEntry looks like a heavily MS centric provisioning / workflow system – which sounds quite similar to Quest’s existing Active Roles server product. I haven’t had the chance to play with either technology, but I’ve come across a few companies in Australia running Active Roles server. I imagine Volcker is more active in Germany and Europe, hence a lower profile in Aus.

Dave Kearns’ original article on Network World also mentions they’re a player in the Gartner Magic Quadrant – in the visionaries quadrant which is quite good. I double checked the 2010 user provisioning quadrant thanks to Oracle here. Some of the comments on Volcker to save you a search were:

In the Visionaries quadrant, Volcker Informatik demonstrated noticeable improvement, partly due to:

• Significant innovation in its vision and approach to provisioning
• Improved servicing of its clients (predeployment and post-deployment)
• Its expanded partner base and expanded reach outside Germany

and

German-based company Volcker Informatik has made notable movement in the area of completeness of vision. It consistently provides a combination of innovative architectures and features, as well as a high-touch customer model, to deliver in a number of quality, low-maintenance solutions.

Given the overlap between the products, I’ll be keen to see if / how they’re integrated. On my superficial read of both product sites (emphasis on superficial) I’d say ActiveEntry provides ActiveRoles a shot in the arm for connectors, SPML capability and a virtual directory. There doesn’t seem to be anything around identity analytics.

Regardless, its good to see some investment in the identity space.

ab Identity and Access Management microsoft identity, quest, SPML, takeover, virtual directory, Volcker