Federal information technology executives have wrestled with identity management for decades.  Today, we have an entirely new set of threats to handle. The perimeter has changed. Data is no longer sitting behind a protective firewall; the attackers are already inside the wall. The challenge is protecting valuable data from intruders, but we need to guard it in better ways.

Kevin Cunningham, chief strategy officer and founder of SailPoint, suggested that a comprehensive identity management system allows for granular control of access to critical information. This kind of identity management software helps in many ways. We see the move to the cloud forcing systems administrators to examine how credentials are handled. Frequently, this transition is with selective applications, which results in a hybrid cloud.

This could mean one set of credentials for a cloud application and another for an application on premise.

Adding to this confusion is the churn that federal managers must endure. Federal employees may get hires from other agencies and may want to transfer access. There are contractors who are “badged” into facilities with a different set of access and let’s not forget that the documents under consideration may change their sensitivity over time. Access review is necessary for this fast-paced world.

Let’s face it, all this change is difficult, if not impossible for a human to grasp. Even if you use Role Based Access Controls, how do you manage a person who has valid access to a file, but happens to be traveling and attempting to read the document at an unusual hour?

Cunningham concluded that federal agencies must consider identity management software to reduce cost, eliminate risk, and more efficiently handle everything from provisioning systems to insider threat.

Host

John Gilroy, Host of Federal Tech Talk, Federal News Radio

John Gilroy has been a member of the Washington D.C. technology community for over twenty years. In 2007 he began weekly interviews on Federal News Radio called “Federal Tech Talk with John Gilroy.”   His 428 interviews provides the basis for profitable referral business. In 2009 he created a successful breakfast club of previous radio guests called The Technology Leadership Roundtable. He has been instrumental in two of his guests forming their own radio shows:  Derrick Dortch with “Fed Access” and Aileen Black and Gigi Schumm with “Women in Washington.”

In 2011 he began teaching a course in social media marketing at Georgetown University; in March of 2014, John won the Tropaia Award for Outstanding Faculty.  John conducts monthly corporate training for large companies on how to leverage social media to generate revenue.

Guest

Kevin Cunningham, Chief Strategy Officer and Founder, SailPoint

In his role as Chief Strategy Officer of SailPoint, Kevin is focused on the future of identity and driving the company’s product strategy to meet customer challenges. As co-founder of SailPoint, Kevin’s goal from the beginning was to build a forward-looking, agile company with the experience to deliver better service and superior innovation to customers. SailPoint combines all the flexibility of a small entrepreneurial company with a seasoned, experienced management team that brings deep expertise to the identity management space.

Under Kevin’s leadership, SailPoint has achieved landmark growth, posting significant revenue gains, expanding the customer and employee base, and building a global presence. Kevin works continuously to sharpen SailPoint’s strategic focus and to align strategic partnerships and corporate development with long-term expansion opportunities.

Kevin previously served as founder and vice president of marketing for Waveset, where he turned ground-breaking innovation into tangible market results. Following the acquisition of Waveset by Sun Microsystems, Kevin led strategic product initiatives for Sun’s software portfolio. Kevin has also brought innovative technologies to market for companies including IBM/Tivoli Systems and UniSQL.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.