Onward: Predictions for 2010

By Kevin Cunningham President & Co-founder

Despite the economic challenges, this has been a record year for SailPoint as we've doubled our customer base and expanded into Europe and APAC. As we look forward to 2010, we have been reflecting upon the recession and how it will impact next year – particularly in regard to how companies consume, purchase and view technology. With that in mind, I offer the following four trends and predictions for 2010:

Cautious Investment Strategies Will Remain

The tough economy has made buyers more selective about how they invest in software solutions. The constricted budgets and constrained resources of 2009 in many cases brought clarity to project prioritization. CIOs have become more discriminating customers who want results quickly and who expect a solid near-term return on investment. Particularly in the identity governance space, companies expect to have full visibility and control over access privileges in months, if not weeks, with measurable results along the way. Even if companies enjoy larger budgets next year, CIOs will continue to be laser-focused on solutions that provide immediate, measurable results.

The Compliance Burden Will Grow

Compliance, transparency and risk management will remain top priorities for global companies. Everyone agrees that as fallout of what transpired in the financial markets in 2008, even more regulation is on the way, not less. The Model Audit Rule, which effectively requires SOX-like compliance for non-public insurance companies, takes effect on January 1st. Part of Obama's stimulus package included the HITECH Act in healthcare, which effectively adds more "teeth" to HIPAA by requiring companies to disclose any privacy breaches. And most recently, the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2009 passed a major hurdle and will be voted on by the Senate. Clearly these are US-only examples, but companies around the world are going to be bombarded with new requirements and more stringent rules.

Identity Management Will "Grow Up"

As a result of the growing focus on governance and compliance, organizations are starting to view IdM as more of a business-centric discipline than an IT-only domain. IdM processes can no longer be the exclusive realm of identity admins and help desk staff. To ensure compliance initiatives are successful, organizations must get business users involved in the process. It is the business user, after all, who has the most accurate knowledge of who should doing what with which applications and datasets. Collaboration is required across teams of business, audit/compliance and technical staff. As a result, there is a growing need for IdM solutions to evolve into business-friendly solutions to better manage IT and business risk. The IdM market will see more business process management (BPM) functionality in the coming year and an expansion of business intelligence and decision support features.

Identity Governance Will Energize the IdM Market

As I've said many times, I believe the recession has served as a catalyst in IdM's evolution – both by elevating the importance of transparency and risk management, as well as increasing corporate focus on rapid results and return on investment. I believe our industry is now at an inflection point where companies are starting to rethink how they approach IT risk management and what they expect from technology vendors. As identity governance technology matures, innovative startups will completely disrupt the IdM space by bringing a level of intelligence and risk management that is of high value to the business. We'll see a few dinosaurs try to evolve, but this race will be a fast one and we'll see if they can keep up.

How will these trends affect you in 2010? You'll continue to benefit from cutting-edge identity governance solutions that will help you meet the growing compliance burden in an automated, repeatable fashion. The "holy grail" of business and IT alignment will become a reality, making it possible for you to streamline the teams and processes involved in identity management. And perhaps most importantly, remember you're in the driver's seat, and you should demand cost-effective solutions that deliver real ROI.

As you wrap up your year and prepare for 2010, here's wishing you and yours a happy, restful holiday season!

Sincerely,

Kevin Cunningham
President & Co-founder
SailPoint