Oracle Identity Governance Reviews

There are many valuable features, most notably Single Sign-On, Identity Management, and Identity Connector Framework, which can be implemented to provision with diverse interfaces.

It has assisted us with UI customization, as well as connecting to other frameworks using the OSB (Oracle Service Bus) and Custom Connectors.

The product requires improvements for UI customization with the current sandbox. Many people prefer that sandbox be removed from the product, as it has caused major challenges with wide implementations. Another improvement would be to provide the user-friendly option of replicating out-of-the-box attributes.

This solution has been successfully implemented and managed for the past 3+ years.

Deployment of sandbox is a major concern, as its stability was underprivileged if implemented with multiple sandboxes from different out-of-sync locations.

Scalability is reduced if the load increases above approximately 100,000.

I would rate this a 7. Since they have wider support level every 12 hours, a service request might change to different time zone. Therefore the same request must be provided again to the new support assistance.

No comment. I personally was not involved during the initial phase.

I personally was not involved during the initial phase.

It was an in-house implementation. Full re-testing will be required if the implementation involves a sandbox and we need to have eyes on the request page labels post-implementation.

I recommend for people to wait for the new version, in which the concept of a sandbox will be removed.

I rate the product a 7. The product provides good out-of-the-box functionality, and Oracle provides fair technical support, but the product does have its drawbacks. Performance is bad, and tuning must be performed by Oracle, which will take time. Customization of the product’s existing features is not user-friendly.

The following is a list of features that I have observed being used by my client that I have implemented:

1. User identity provisioning & lifecycle management
2. User Identity Profile/Attribute management
3. Self-Service Tool for end-user access request & password change
4. Role and Entitlement provisioning in target application/s
5. Auto de-provisioning of user identities
6. Audit capabilities & Report generation

I have seen an organization benefit through the automation of mundane repeat tasks related to setting up user identities, and managing user access as per a defined role. One of the key business driving factors for OIM implementation has been SOX compliance. End User Self-Service like password reset and access request is another feature that helps to reduce helpdesk calls.

The underlying architecture of the product is quite complex and hard to maintain and troubleshoot. Self-Service capabilities are quite limited, and the out-of-box capabilities are limited and customizations are quite complex.

I’ve been using it for four years.

Releases prior to 11gR2 PS2 were hard to deploy due to lot of shipped bugs. Every implementation was like dealing with an endless series of patches.

Once you get it working right, it turns out to be quite stable. 11gR2 PS2 can be considered as the first bug free stable release.

Scalability has never been an issue.

Technical support is horrible. It is faster to find the resolution ourselves than rely on support. Product team engagement has been helpful but it’s hard to get direct access to the product team resources. They are good at responding as per SLA without issue resolution.

I have worked with Microsoft FIM and SailPoint IQ as well. This was not by choice but the client environment was a multiple identity management platform. Silo based deployment had resulted in a solution that meant that there were multiple identity management solutions supporting the company’s global needs.

It was complex, primarily due to dependencies on various underlying technologies like Java, WebLogic, SOA, Database, and BI for reporting etc. Version compatibility was critical and any mismatch could lead to partially functional implementation. Things got better with 11gR2 PS2.

I was part of vendor team responsible for implementing the solution.

One thing for sure, is that it is the most comprehensive solution out there in the market. During the preliminary stages when the concept of Identity Management was not well defined, every vendor came up with a product offering solution for very specific use cases. Now, the offerings are quite mature but they still have trace and limitations bound to their origins. If you are looking for a simple, and quick, tool to get started with, there are many options out there in the market but then there are limitations that require customization or creating features from scratch.

It provides us with an integrated platform for all governance products. We now have the ability to have a complete end to end solution with a UI framework that makes customization an easy task.

The audit became a breeze as the entire provisioning approval process has been brought under the the gamut of OIM. All SOX audits became very easy as the entire audit information required is available from OIM system with respect to user access control.

The product suite is abundantly heavy & complex and requires a lot of simplification. I feel that this simplification is highly important. Also, the lifecycle management of the application is very very substandard and also has to be improved significantly.

I have been using this product for three years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

We had no issues with the performance.

Scalability is costly as the system resources are consumed very quickly.

It's average.

I had not used a similar product to this previously.

It is complex as the entire implementation takes a lot of efforts from the business, in partucular technology and the main implementation teams.

Although vendors are less equipped with quality implementation teams. However it is, for an initial period, advised to have an experienced implementation partner.

There were no other options looked at.

Please choose your solution carefully and plan the infrastructure with entire applications in place.

We use Identity Management primarily within our installation of E-Business Suite. Identity Management gives us the ability for people who use Oracle Application Manager to login using their standard network username and password.

We are a pharmaceutical company. We use E-Business Suite and Identity Manager to bind into E-Business Suite. That gives us the ability to carry out an e-signature so that we can track and trace anything going on, or what's going on in the database base, back to what user signed for a particular step in a manufacturing sequence, and when they signed for it. So with Single-Sign On, we can basically audit each step of a particular piece of manufacturing, who carried out the step, and when they carried out the step.

Identity Manager is very complicated to set up. I guess where that comes from I believe, is we use it to buy into LDAP, and Microsoft and Oracle don't get on a corporate level, so it's going to be very difficult for them to get onto a software level, making it very, very complicated to set up. Now, we did eventually get there and the product does exactly what we'd expect it to do, but it took us a long time to get there.

Deploying it was difficult for the initial setup because it was complex. After that, we've had no issues with deployment.

It's very stable. We haven't had any issues with instability that were big.

It's scaled just fine for our needs.

We use Oracle Linux and WebLogic, and Identity Management, giving us a High Availability level that we're using with the Oracle Access Manager solution. Those 3 products in the stack -- the OS, the middleware, and then the Identity Management software to go into the middleware -- was such a complicated process to set up. I think Oracle should have provided some sort of flow chart or guide to get these products installed faster and configured in such a way that you are comfortable.

Reconciliation and provisioning engine, but we also use other features like requests, approvals, and reporting.

We now have better control of our identity data and entitlements in target systems. Automation of provisioning, updating and deprovisioning of accounts in target systems.

The process of integrating with target systems can be simplified. Setting up a connector is a cumbersome process involving several interfaces, configuration objects, etc.

It's been in production for three years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

Minor issues with stability and performance, but after tuning properly most of these were solved.

It's been able to scale for our needs.

Depends on the support agent. It can vary from good to very poor. In general, it takes a lot of time before support requests are routed to higher instances like development teams.

Initial setup has got better then previous versions, but still has place for improvement. The setup involves a lot of sub-components with many dependencies etc. The documentation is not entirely clear with regards to dependencies.

I work for a consulting company that has implemented Oracle Identity Manager at clients. It might be that my views are biased, but I would certainly recomend to have technical expertise before starting an implementation project.

I would recommend purchasing the licenses before the end of Oracles fiscal year. You tend to get the best discounts then.

We are currently involved in the process of evaluating other vendors.

Gartner and Forrester offer reports comparing and ranking different vendors. At the initiation of our implementation project, Oracle was ranked as a leader. The picture has changed since then. In my personal opinion, the choice of technical solution should always be subordinate to companys needs, issues and use-cases. When these are defined, the company should compare several different solutions to each other and focus on ease of learning and use of product.

• Provisioning
• Certification
• Self Service

It helped us reduce the user management cost, and strengthen IT security by reducing the risk.

New application onboarding requires a lot of complex configurations and setups to complete the onboarding of a new application.

I've been using it for over six years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

Stability is sometimes a challenge.

It’s a very scalable application.

6/10

It's complex as the product has compatibility with many different operating systems, databases and application servers. The initial setup requires a lot of complex configurations during installation.

We’ve outsourced infrastructure and application management, but application development and implementation is in-house. I would recommend this approach.

I have evaluated many IAM options, including cloud and open source products on the market. OIM fulfills the requirements for my organization.

Try to focus on the IAM processes and functional side of the field, rather than technical development.

• Centralized account management
• Provisioning, reconciliation
• Attestation/Re-certification
• Delegated administration

Application access is provided to and removed from end users in a timely manner, which removes delays in the on-boarding/off-boarding process. It also improves productivity and security.

It could be more stable and faster.

I've been using it for eight years.

I've had no issues with deployment.

There are issues with stability in the long run.

There are issues with the scalability in the long run.

6/10

6/10. You need to have serious leverage with the Oracle account managers to get support issues fixed quickly.

It was straightforward in our case. This depends on the customer requirements and also how well planned the project is.

We did it with an in-house team with help from the vendor.

• Oracle Identity Federation
• Oracle Internet Directory (LDAP)
• ODSM
• OIM
• OAM
• Oracle Virtual Directory

It replaced the old Oracle SSO and OID, helping us save on support for off-the-shelf products.

Also, it easily integrates with other applications, even with custom apps.

• Installation process
• Technical support
• More relevant documentation about specific parameters (as I still have no clue what they are responsible for)
• Better documentation for HA and clustered setup especially with F5 Load Balancers

We've been using this solution for more than two years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

We had some small issues with stability, particularly with memory leaks in some functions of this product. However, Oracle came up with the right patches.

We've had no issues scaling it for our needs.

4/10 for Australian customer service. It seems like Oracle customer service does not know its product as well as I know it.

4/10 for Australian technical support. I noticed that US technical support is quite knowledgeable, so I recommend asking for support only from Europe or North America as they have good engineers there.

The initial setup was complex, as any enterprise identity management product would be. First, it's not clear what to download from Oracle e-delivery. Secondly, it's not one product but a complex, multiple-component system. We have to first install OID, and then find the right repository creation utility RCU. Apart from this, you need to install SOA first for OIM, and there are multiple patches for the database and infrastructure. Only after all prerequisites have been met is it possible to install.

People from a pure Oracle DBA background can't do this. You need to have all-arounders with knowledge of SSL and PKI infrastructure, plus a little bit of skill with Linux. They also need to have Oracle Database skills and not follow template thinking.

Also, due to the nature of the organization, my employer is paranoid about security, so it is done in a very secure configuration, including reverse proxies, traffic encryption (SSL), and High Availability setup with F5 Load Balancer. It was just really complex.

It was implemented in-house by two or three experienced contractors/consultants, including myself.

It has many built-in components, and some components, if you don't actually use them, you don't need to purchase them.

We did not consider other solutions as we needed a certified and supported configuration to perform an integration with Oracle E-Business R12. Also, the potential integration with other identity management systems was a factor.

Just go for it. Stability and scalability are very good. Once installation is done and it is stable, you will not experience too much trouble.