The Need
Large organizations look for Identity Management (IdM) systems to help them address significant privileges management and security needs. Likewise, they look for Compliance Management systems to help them implement and demonstrate proper IT controls.

• Both IdM and Compliance projects are very difficult to implement
• Both IdM and Compliance projects will provide very limited value to the organization, unless the problem of privileges quality is mapped, quantified, and at least partially addressed first.

The risks and costs associated with these projects suggest that organizations must carefully evaluate the current state of privileges, in order to better plan their deployment path and ensure success. Typically, it is important to ensure that:

• Common and specific risks are identified and mitigated.
• Outdated, excessive, and erroneous privileges are cleaned up.
• Provisioning is planned to deploy an effective role-based automation.
• Relevant policies and regulations are identified and can be enforced
• A firm business case for the IdM / Compliance project can be presented.

How it Works
The Sage Survey is designed to help gain a better understanding of the current state, and to identify and quantify IdM and compliance needs, complexity and benefits, through an analysis of the existing privileges.
Performed during only one week at the customer’s site, the Sage Survey provides an initial assessment and quantification of the current situation, provides substantial privileges cleanup insight, reviews alternatives for deployment of a role-based IdM solution, and/or a compliance management solution, and shows the expected values to the organization. The main goals of the Sage Survey are:

• Explore privileges and run various investigative queries
• Identify and quantify excessive and out-of-pattern privileges
• Identify and quantify duplicate and overlapping group definitions
• Discover privileges that result from flawed provisioning processes
• "Reverse engineer" role definitions from patterns in existing privileges
• Review, refine, and optimize existing role definitions
• Test alternative role engineering and role/rule mining methodologies
• Identify key systems and assess the complexity of the full IdM project
• Test compliance with a few policies and regulations, and the possibilities of automating verification

The project can be expanded in a cost effective manner to include more systems and deeper analysis, cleanup, and preparation.

Key Deliverables Deliverables of a Eurekify Sage Survey include: Reports that quantify the number of users, groups, roles (if existing), and privileges in each of the target systems Reports that assess the current quality of privileges and role definitions (if existing). Identification and listing of simple cleanup opportunities: orphan, redundant, and otherwise unnecessary accounts, groups, and membership Identification and quantification of exceptional and out-of-pattern privileges. Identification and listing of inconsistencies between privileges and HR information Identification of suspected privileges collectors Identification of IdM/Compliance needs, and flaws in existing processes Identification of potential roadblocks to IdM/Compliance deployment project Analysis of existing groups and role definitions. Analysis of alternative role engineering and role mining methodologies and how they fit the organization's business practices. Optional: Identification and quantification of existing violations of customer-defined segregation-of-duty rules and business process constraints. Optional: Setup of web-based facility for privileges recertification by business managers

Suspected User Privileges   Roles Covering Same Resources

Expected Benefits

• Understand and quantify the complexity of organizational systems
• Build strong and quantified business case for IdM/Compliance project
• Better prepare target systems for IdM/Compliance project
• Better plan IdM/Compliance deployment project
• Reduce IdM license cost by removing unused accounts
• Reduce IdM/Compliance deployment time
• Reduce IdM/Compliance deployment uncertainty and risks

For more information about the Sage Survey, please contact a Eurekify partner.