Identity and Access Management
In June 2006, nine people from Penn State attended a conference addressing trends and issues regarding Identity Management in the Committee for Institutional Cooperation (CIC) schools. This group spanned many administrative areas at Penn State:
Individuals in the group spent time with like-minded colleagues and peers from all of the CIC schools. There was, and continues to be, considerable interest and urgency surrounding this topic throughout higher education. For example, in the 2006 EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey of higher education IT leaders ranked security and identity management as the number one IT related issue in terms of its strategic importance to the institution. The survey information is found in the Resources section of this Web site.
Penn State attendees of that conference all agreed that continuing, broadening, and more formally organizing these discussions about identity and access management were important for Penn State's future. Penn State's discussions at this conference, as well as the other CIC schools' discussions are available online via the conference's Web site, which is found in the Resources section of this Web site.
It was determined that a cohesive, comprehensive identity and access management (IAM) strategy was needed at Penn State. Such a strategy would help with: mitigating risks regarding institutional reputation, complying with federal regulations, fostering collaboration with other institutions, improved usability of information based resources for faculty and students, customizing and securing access to data and facilities, allowing for the portability of credentials, and establishing frameworks for accountability. These are just some of the reasons why a group was been formed to establish a University-wide identity and access management plan.
The IAM group recognized that IAM is a very broad topic and believed that participation from organizations throughout the University is critically important to successfully understanding Penn State's needs, challenges, and future directions in IAM. The IAM group was charged with meeting several times within a nine month period, with the primary goal of creating an identity and access management roadmap for Penn State. The recommendations and roadmap document was delivered to the Vice Provost for Information Technology, Kevin Morooney, on February 12, 2008. It is essential that the business processes and requirements for each of area were well understood and represented in the development of this roadmap. The group was co-chaired by Joel Weidner, Auxiliary and Business Services, and Renee Shuey, Information Technology Services (ITS).
