Study Shows IT Decision-Makers View Identity and Access as Chief Security Concerns

-- Role-Based Access Control was the next most-recognized IAM solution after Single Sign On; more than 80 percent of respondents were familiar with it.

-- 37 percent of respondents stated they have already implemented or are currently implementing Role-Based Access Control.

-- 41 percent of respondents stated they plan to implement Role-Based Access Control within the next four years.

Federated Identity Management - enables participating organizations to cooperate in sharing each other's authentication and authorization services. It is particularly useful for secure information-sharing with external partners and suppliers, or among business units within a company.

-- Federated Identity Management is the most nascent and currently the least implemented IAM solution; 62 percent of respondents indicated familiarity with Federated Identity Management, but only 19 percent have implemented it.

-- However, 37 percent of respondents plan to implement a Federated Identity Management solution within the next four years.

-- The adoption rate for Federated Identity Management could accelerate with the acceptance of a single standard - most likely the emerging Security Assertion Markup Language 2 (SAML 2). Nearly 90 percent of respondents agreed that the emergence of an accepted standard is an important goal.

Conducted in early October 2004, the survey polled 150 IT decision-makers at large U.S. companies (with more than $500 million annual revenue) about issues surrounding identity and access management within their organizations. Market research firm KRC Research conducted the study on behalf of Unisys.