A significant shift in enterprise thinking is needed relating to the use of web access management (WAM) tools, or other technologies, to centralize authorization systems, according to research house Gartner.
WAM applies to technologies that use access control systems designed to provide centralized authentication, single sign-on and authorization capabilities for Web applications and portals. Security threats continue to hinder Web apps
Gartner says that: “Many enterprises see the benefits of a standardized authorization policy repository, but few have identified a compelling reason to implement centralized authorization immediately, or even to use the full capabilities of their WAM deployments”.
In its 2008 Web Access Management Magic Quadrant report, Gartner has placed Oracle, IBM, CA, Sun Microsystems and Novell in the leaders’ quadrant. Gartner positions vendors in the leaders’ quadrant based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute.
Mature market
“The leaders in the 2008 WAM market have matured, with larger vendors offering relatively strong products at reasonable prices and investing in new associated functionality and ‘complete identity management’ strategies that leverage their customer bases for increased sales and market share,” the Gartner report stated.
It said the WAM market growth is slowing, with few vendors experiencing strong customer-base growth. Many experienced little or no growth.
Larger vendors are positioning their WAM products as future, centralized authorization policy repositories for new enterprise applications (Web and non-Web) or as components in access management “suites.”
Gartner said that future success in this market will require a focus on specific use cases or generalized Web access management architectures for enterprise WAM needs.