Prolifics Accelerator Approach: Driving Security Implementation Success with Identity and Access Management Power Tools

A good Systems Integrator knows how to create powerful technical and business solutions for their customers. A great one can assemble solutions and collate the technical and business knowledge from their work at many customers for the benefit of the rest. Over the years of performing superb Security services for our customers, Prolifics has created numerous implementation accelerators that we bring, often at no cost, to our new customers.

Prolifics has proprietary tools built for IBM Identity and Access Management (IAM) that simplify upgrades and operational maintenance by up to 40%. The “IAM Power Tools” provide specialized capabilities in:

Automated Regression Testing
Our Power Tools leverage our unique knowledge of IBM Security Identity Manager (ISIM) Workflows, customization and APIs. They utilize the keyword-driven testing approach to support Test Driven Development and complete path for testing – from an ISIM request to a change on the end system. They provide regression, functional, unit testing and UI testing. They also uses a generic free and open source test automation framework (Robot Framework), GUI and test case creation and provide test result clear reports.

IAM Configuration Management and Migration
A set of automation tools written as SDI assembly lines to operate and manage any number of ISIM customizations. It simplifies backup, version control and en-masse changes to customizations in workflows, provisioning policies, forms, mail templates, ACIs and other forms of ISIM customizations.

Automatic Workflow Analysis and Documentation (AWD)
AWD creates automatic maps of all identity workflows, generic and customized in one unified view. It can make even the complex 'spaghetti' workflows manageable and maintainable by providing printable PDF's of all nodes, connections, flows and invocations. It is easier and more intuitive to understand than the internal ISIM workflow editor with more relevant information in plain English, rather than javascript. Color coded and carefully laid out automatic documentation makes it possible to keep up to date architecture documentation, easy to understand by business and technical users. Combined with the customization export PowerTools AWD takes operational support and issue tracking to the next level.

ISAM Script Automation
IBM Access Management appliances, both physical and virtual eschew the pdadmin scripting for integrity reasons. Yet, pdadmin scripting is one of the oft used low level automation mechanisms that many of our our customers use. We had created a translation interface that allows existing pdadmin scripts to run on the new IBM Access management appliances, allowing our customers to retain their existing administration and configuration techniques and procedures and thus ease migration to the appliances.

In addition to the PowerTools that our consultants use and train our customers on, Prolifics owns an IAM Adapter & Profile Library that extends the reach of IBM’s portfolio to a wide range of common and specialty applications. The library includes dozens of adapters to connect, provision to and reconcile from a multitude of enterprise ERP, CRM, Financial, HR, IT and line of business systems that we had encountered over the years.

Inviting a security integrator like Prolifics, that packages solutions and assembles accelerators for the customers, helps you reap the rewards of faster implementations, simpler maintenance projects and proven processes. Our clients benefit not just from direct expertise that we bring with our knowledge and experience, but also from the powerful assets that we created over the years in the industry.

To learn more about Prolifics' security solutions, visit www.prolifics.com.

Alex Ivkin is the Vice President of the Security practice at Prolifics. With a deep understanding of compliance, governance and risk management, Alex brings more than 15 years of experience in a broad array of computer security domains. Alex has worked with large and small organizations to help drive security initiatives and deploy various types of enterprise-class identity management and application security systems. In a Security Architect role, he has helped companies succeed in attaining regulatory compliance, improving business operations and securing enterprise infrastructures. As the head of the Security Practice, Alex leads a team of highly skilled consultants to deliver comprehensive security solutions to our clients. Alex is an established and recognized security expert, a speaker at various industry conferences, holds numerous security certifications, two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in computer science with a minor in psychology.

The Congruence Model for Security

From management literature (Tushman & O'Reilly), the congruence-based problem solving is a method to quickly and accurately identify the root cause of performance or opportunity gaps. In the context of security architecture, the congruence model can be applied to creating comprehensive security assessments for an organization. The model emphasizes analysis of the relationships among four core components of an organization (shown in the graphic below) also called the building blocks whose alignment relationships are the focus of congruent security architecture techniques. The goal is to leverage the relationships and interactions between those core components to reveal the underlying security posture of an organization.

Each congruence relation is important in forming organizational diagnoses that help us understand the current state of security in the enterprise, and the causes of the vulnerabilities. Analyzing these relations tends to define the political map and how the players tend to navigate it. It helps identify organizational behaviors that are helpful, neutral or detrimental to the security architecture initiative.

Analyzing the following three alignments using an appropriate "congruence questionnaire" is crucial to determining the security posture of the enterprise.

The Task and People Congruence Relation:

1. Do people have the required competencies to perform the critical tasks that ensure safety of data and process?
2. To what extent do the skills, abilities and motives of today’s human resources fit with security planning, architecture formulation and implementation requirements?

Identification goals: task-human resource inconsistencies that inhibit the ability to execute on security strategy.

The Task and Formal Organization Relation:

1. Do the formal linking mechanisms between units facilitate security task integration, security team building and agility from a product delivery perspective?
2. Is there a company wide vision for security and a strategy for addressing regulations, audit and security breaches?

Identification goals: task-structure inconsistencies that inhibit necessary integration among SBUs, needed to deliver a comprehensive security solution.

The Task and Culture Relation:

1. Does the existing culture energize the accomplishment of critical tasks?
2. Does the informal communication network and informal distribution of power help get the work done?
3. Is there a reluctance to take action? Is there reliance on being told what to do? Identification goals: culture-task inconsistencies that drag performance down and inhibit consensus on security goals.

This due-diligence analysis can help identify the need for managers and their teams to realign the formal structures, people processes and cultural aspects of their organization with the critical tasks necessary to achieve the overall security vision. Managers and their teams should learn from this process, and even re-initiate the process iteratively within their own SBUs if necessary.

Next month, I will be attending IBM Pulse 2013 in Las Vegas, the industry-leading conference on Security Intelligence. Prolifics will exhibit in the solution showcase and host a number of sessions throughout the conference. To learn more about Prolifics' presence at IBM Pulse, visit: www.prolifics.com/pulse-2013.htm. If you would like to connect with me before the conference, please click here.

Javed Shah is a Practice Director for Security at Prolifics with more than 12 years experience in identity and access management architectures. He has broad exposure developing identity and access management solutions, and system software components that deliver reliable data security, web enablement and user lifecycle management services to customers. Before joining Prolifics, Javed founded and ran a professional services company in India for 6 years. Spanning over a decade, Javed has led identity management projects to successful exits at Nestle, University of California San Francisco, Kaiser Permanente, ABM Industries, BRE Properties, UPS, Tampa General Hospital and E*TRADE Bank. He was also the leader of the ITIM Level 3 defect resolution and analysis team in India where he was responsible for handling all customer defects for North America and Asia. Javed holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a Certificate in Implementing and Managing an Enterprise Architecture using the Zachman Framework and the CISSP certification. He is also currently pursuing an MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley.