Crafting a Unified Identity Management Strategy
For a media giant facing a multitude of business challenges, CPSG’s experts successfully developed an identity management
roadmap to be implemented across the company’s enterprise identity and provisioning system. This roadmap will give the client
the power to centrally add, change and delete users across all critical systems once the systems are integrated into the
company’s unified identity management system.
A media powerhouse facing multiple business challenges
A Fortune 1000 company with 7,800 employees and $1.4 billion in revenues, this media giant owns 19 television stations in
markets such as Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Seattle/Tacoma and Phoenix, reaching 13.7 percent of U.S. television households;
four daily newspapers, with a combined readership of 2.1 million daily and 2.7 million Sunday; two regional cable news channels
reaching 3.6 million households; and 34 Web sites, including some of the nation’s most popular local and regional news sites.
Like many big corporations undergoing tremendous growth, this media company faces a multitude of technology-related
business challenges, including:
Regulatory compliance – Legislation like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are forcing enterprises to standardize user management.
Security risk management – Keeping tabs on who has access to what through real-time auditing and reporting is
vital in securing enterprise data, networks and applications.
Cost reduction – Automated identity management products cut costs because fewer people are needed to run them and help
desk calls are reduced.
Improved service levels – Internal service level agreements with call centers or IT services are increasing in
complexity and shrinking in budget. The only way to support them is through automation.
A three-phased approach
The company’s information security team developed a three-phased unified identity management (IdM) strategy focused on preparing
the infrastructure to meet various business, security, auditing and reporting needs.
Phase I – Reengineering of the company’s corporate directory which stores all common user attributes across the many
corporate systems
Phase II – Implementation of role management in the corporate financial system PeopleSoft
Phase III – Implementation of a user provisioning and auditing system across all business critical systems
The company began phase I earlier this year to revamp its corporate directory architecture. This included reviewing users’
information in the directory to ensure there was limited private data in this central repository and migrating the system
to newer versions of the platform.
Once the directory architecture was in place, the client began the second phase of its unified identity management strategy by
starting the process for implementing role-based management in its PeopleSoft financial system.
The final phase of the UIM strategy requires the implementation of an enterprise identity and provisioning system. This system
will allow the client to centrally add, change and delete users across all critical systems once the systems are integrated
into the IdM system.
The company’s management reviewed several systems for their provisioning solution and decided on Sun Microsystem’s Identity Manager.
Performing a proof of concept with a trusted partner
The company’s management required CPSG to perform product proof of concept (POC) with the company’s systems and data. The POC had
to demonstrate the capabilities of the various identity management vendors against the company’s requirements with no customization.
To perform the POC, CPSG outlined the client’s requirements and implemented the necessary systems and software. We performed the POC with
assistance from different vendors’ professional services groups. The high-level POC requirements included:
- Real-time integration with the client’s simulated ERP HR system
- Real-time integration with the client’s corporate directory
- Real-time integration with the client’s test environment for Active Directory
A recommendation based on in-depth research and expertise
After reviewing various technologies, platforms and software solutions offered by different vendors, coupled with performing an
in-depth and successful proof of concept, the clients’ security team recommended the purchase of Sun’s Identity Management Software
Stack.
In addition, CPSG has provided the client with professional services integration assistance, including:
- Final requirements gathering, architectural design, development and implementation
- Mentoring and training alongside Sun Microsystems during the implementation
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