University Business - May 2012 - (Page 40)

Goes There? a way to identify those individuals.” Unfortunately, because of the pressure the IT department tends to be under, it takes a “headline grabbing breach” to move IdM to the top of the priority list, says Cole Clark, global vice president of Oracle Education and Research. Another security concern surrounds the paper trail needed to get a new user on the system—paper that likely included personally identifiable information. “You don’t know the path that piece of paper will take,” says Maass. “The exposure of that data can be huge. Aside from the inefficiency, the leakage of personal info is concerning.” He also notes that poor data management can lead to purchasing more software seat licenses than necessary. In the move toward a single sign-on solution, it becomes paramount to ensure passwords are strong and protected, stresses Petersen. “That is the biggest concern about single sign-on. You’ve introduced a single point of failure ... that gives access to payroll, timesheets, etc.” Two-factor authentication, such as a password combined with biometrics, can address the issue. Finally, there is the risk of missed opportunities for students to access resources at other campuses or institutions. Aiding a potential transfer student to access resources at his or her target school provides better services, points out Thompson. says Scheppler. “In some cases, we’re having to define those processes. They don’t always know. We’re creating some of them piecemeal; they tell us things, then come back a few days later with more.” He attends faculty campus meetings and academic assemblies to discuss the project, as well as meets individually with each group or department on campus to discuss the on- and off-boarding process. “It takes one to two years to get it all in order. We’re planning on about 11 months.” Capella has also undertaken “extensive identity lifecycle discovery, which entailed identifying and documenting all user types, lifecycle events, and data that can be used by IdM to correctly determine a user’s status,” says Schuett. Although their new system is not yet deployed, these efforts have already led to changes in business process and campus culture, she says. “We know that if you don’t lead with policies, you won’t succeed,” cautions Clark. “You have to be prepared to enforce these policies around the use of the tools.” Decisions also have to be made about maintenance going forward, providing self-service access to users for password changes and profile updates, and whether to integrate with social media sites. “If someone does want to take a test class, is it easier to have them set up a new profile or to just let them log in with their Facebook account?” says Maass. Campus leaders have to realize IdM is as much an administrative issue as it is a technology issue, says Thompson. Some policies, such as how long email should stay active after a student leaves campus, are de facto because someone had to make a decision, but there was never really any thought put into it. Who > Clean-up Crew Higher ed is fond of building technology solutions in house, but, in the case of IdM, it might not be the best option. “I’ve seen cases where the people who maintain custom solutions retire or fall ill. The school was left scrambling during the semester end and beginning,” Shoham says. “There were significant disruptions. I’ve seen it happen at some big-name institutions.” Continuity of service, plus potential time and money savings, can drive schools to an off-the-shelf solution, he says. After the discovery part of the process is complete, starting with clean data is key to success. Rather than migrating data, Montgomery staff are setting up Active Directory empty and populating it with the information in Novel. “Our CTO made that decision since we’ve never done a lot of house cleaning in Novel,” admits Scheppler. “He’s afraid the ‘later’ will never come.” Instead of taking a chance, they are carefully building the database from the ground up. “Trying to push paper to keep users clean is futile,” says Maass. “Without putting an ID management system in place, you won’t manage to keep it clean.” Since the term “project” implies there is an end-date that will allow people to move on to other tasks, Shoham suggests branding identity management as a “program” within IT. “A program implies it is ongoing and you will have people dedicated to it,” he points out. Thompson echoes the need to make IdM a core discipline, “not just something that has come along for the ride,” by establishing both a short- and long-term strategy to address it. While senior leadership probably has an inkling about the importance of a strong IdM solution, ensuring ongoing resources are committed could take some > Policies and Process Migrating to a new, or improving an existing, IdM system is one of those technology projects that takes a lot of legwork before the first line of code is written. “Identity management is a data flow problem,” says Shoham. You have to map the path data takes, determine change triggers, and identify who has approval rights before making changes. “It’s impossible for a vendor or consultant to come and replace stuff if you can’t tell them what you want it to do.” As Montgomery IT staff migrate from Novel to Microsoft Active Directory, discovery has been an important part of the process. “We’ve had to talk to almost every department and discuss their processes,” Resources Educause ID and Access Management working group, www.Educause.edu/iam Educause ID Management in Higher Ed 2011 report, www.Educause.edu /Resources/IdentityManagementin HigherEduc/229801 Hitachi ID Systems, http://hitachi-id.com InCommon, www.incommon.org Lighthouse Security Group, www.discoverlighthousegateway.com Microsoft Active Directory, http://Microsoft.com Oracle, www.oracle.com Unicon, www.unicon.net 40 | May 2012 universitybusiness.com http://www.Educause.edu/iam http://www.Educause.edu/Resources/IdentityManagementinHigherEduc/229801 http://www.Educause.edu/Resources/IdentityManagementinHigherEduc/229801 http://www.hitachi-id.com http://www.incommon.org http://www.discoverlighthousegateway.com http://www.Microsoft.com http://www.oracle.com http://www.unicon.net http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - May 2012

University Business - May 2012
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Human Resources
Education Gateways
Big Ideas
Reaching Higher
Admissions Goes Social
Learning Disabled Students Welcome
Who Goes There?
Computing Trends, Today and Tomorrow
Money Matters
End Note

University Business - May 2012